“You’re doing one thing lovely, and it’s important that you’re not left alone,” Francis advised the gang, which the Vatican estimated at 20,000, of missionaries and Catholic trustworthy from Vanimo in a gathering outdoors the city’s one-storey, wood-panelled cathedral parish.
“You reside in an impressive land, enriched by an important number of crops and birds,” mentioned the pope. “The great thing about the panorama is matched by the great thing about a neighborhood the place folks love each other”.
The Rev. Tomas Ravaioli, one of many missionaries, mentioned he couldn’t consider the pope had truly come to Vanimo. “He’s retaining his promise to return,” mentioned the priest. “We can not consider it. At his age he’s making an unlimited effort.”
A sprawling nation of mountains, jungle and rivers, PNG is residence to greater than 800 languages and a whole lot of tribes, together with dozens of uncontacted peoples.
As with different occasions all through his keep within the nation, Francis was greeted in a discipline outdoors the cathedral with a standard dance from a bunch carrying feathered headdresses and straw skirts.
The pope additionally heard 4 testimonies from native Catholics. Steven Abala, a lay trainer, described how some rural communities, minimize off from roads, should wait weeks or months between visits by clergymen.
Abala introduced Francis with a headdress with yellow and brown feathers, which the pope tried on.
