Pope Francis sets off on his longest trip yet — at 87

Never before has a pope undertaken a trip at such an advanced age: Pope Francis, who will turn 88 in December, is off to Southeast Asia and Oceania, despite frequently relying on a wheelchair to get around.

During the 12 days from September 2 to September 13, he will have points of call in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. The planned seven plane journeys will mean that the leader of the Catholic Church will probably spend a good 43 hours in the air as he flies thousands of kilometers, including over the equator.

But the pontiff very much wants to visit the region, one that seems at the very margins of the world when seen from Rome.

It is very important "that Francis travels to these regions and meets people on the growing Asian continent in person," Frank Kraus, the head of the international department of the Aachen-based Catholic charity Missio, told DW.

Kraus said many of Missio's partners spoke with the organization about the importance of the pope's trip.

"It is not a fringe area for the church, but a living part of the world church," said Kraus.

Multireligious region

The Asian region, which also includes India and China, is becoming ever more important not only economically and politically, but also for the Catholic Church, said Kraus.

He said many religions and worldviews were represented in the region, with a current church focus being on the contributions that Christians, even as a minority, could make to the society in their particular country and on the continent in general.

In his 16 planned speeches, Pope Francis will be able to talk about his main themes of his pontificate, which began in March 2013. In Indonesia, his first stop on Tuesday, he will be visiting a country with one of the world's biggest Muslim populations and one that adheres to a form of Islam that is very open to interreligious dialogue. In Papua New Guinea, people are very concerned about the exploitation of nature by corporations and about the consequences of climate change. East Timor, meanwhile, is still struggling to establish its own identity a good 20 years after it gained independence.

In October, delegates from all the pope's current destinations will come to Rome for the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The focus will be on "synodality" — a more active general participation by all believers in the doings of the church. 

However, the topic of sexual abuse is also likely to be touched upon as something affecting the church worldwide. The East Timorese Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, probably the region's best-known Catholic clergyman and who jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, has been facing sexual abuse allegations over the past few years and has withdrawn from public view.

'Papal trips have become essential'

This is Francis' 45th international trip, coming after almost a year in which he did not leave Italy. John Paul II, pope from 1978 to 2002, was the only pope to take more trips during his long pontificate — 104 altogether.

What seems clear is that trips to every corner of the globe are now part and parcel of a pope's schedule.

"Today, travel is a very integral part of papal activities and has become almost essential," Jörg Ernesti, an Augsburg-based theology professor who researches recent papal history, told DW.

Just 60 years have passed since Pope Paul VI surprised his church and the world by announcing an international trip. He flew to the Holy Land at the start of 1964 — the place where Jesus is said to have lived. Never before had a pope traveled by plane, despite the state of elevation long imputed to the office.

According to Ernesti, Paul VI took a very thoughtful approach and developed a concept of "apostolic ourneys," as papal trips are called in Vatican parlance. For this reason, said Ernesti, trips should always include meetings with a country's leaders, with young people and with representatives of Judaism and other non-Christian religions.

Paul VI was not in favor of the regional churches coming to the pope, Ernesti said, adding: "That would have been centralist thinking." By visiting the regional churches, he wanted to show his appreciation, according to the researcher. It wasn't until the trips taken by Pope John Paul II that accusations of "neocentralism," the orientation of everyone toward Rome, were again frequently heard.

So far, Pope Francis has been to almost all parts of the globe except Oceania on his trips. He has visited countries in the Islamic world with noticeable frequency. However, he has missed out on a visit to his homeland, Argentina, and many Western European countries, as well as China and Russia, which are still blank spaces on the Vatican's travel diplomacy agenda.

When Ernesti speaks of Francis' travels, he uses a phrase also used by Missio's Kraus — "going to the fringes." This, he said, is something the pope "recommends to the church and his priests, and puts into practice with his travels."

From October, Francis will be the second-oldest pontiff ever to be in office. Only Leo XIII, who died in 1903 at the age of 93, was older. In the past few years, Francis has been hospitalized several times and had several operations — his advanced age is starting to show. All of this also has an impact on his travel plans, partly because of his limited mobility.

Church must consider 'limits of physical resilience'

Ernesti sees the pope's age as a growing problem.

"In my view, the problem posed by the pope's aging has not yet really been thought about within the church," he said. "After all, things are reaching their limits. Now, the pope's travel schedule has been greatly reduced, and media presence has been restricted."

He recalled Paul VI, who in 1970, at the age of 73, traveled eastward on a trip that also included Indonesia and Oceania. 

"That was simply too much for him. At the end, he really collapsed physically, partly because of the humid climate in East Asia. The pope realized then that he was reaching his limits as an old man who had just recovered from cancer," said Ernesti.

After that trip, Paul VI did not leave Italy again until his death in 1978.

"The great importance, and not just symbolic importance, of these trips, the limits of physical resilience — that all has to be considered when one sees the pope's advanced age," said Ernesti.

Pope Francis and the worldwide church

Kraus is delighted that the pope is traveling to the remote region despite his physical restrictions. "He is doing exactly what we want from him," he said.

Kraus said Missio had heard from its partners in Asia and Oceania that people there were very aware of the great strain the 87-year-old was taking upon himself in order to visit. 

The pope wants "to travel to all regions and tries to listen to everyone," he said. This all-encompassing concept is also evident in the cardinals appointed by Francis, said Kraus.

"The church is considered a worldwide organization. With this pope, it has become even more so."

This article was originally written in German.