Pope welcomed in Port Moresby with lights in the streets illuminating the evening
Hundreds of people accompanied the journey from the airport to the nunciature. Some have walked for a week from the country’s remotest to be present. For the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, Fr Giorgio Licini, youth unemployment and the victims of witchcraft are some of the issues, “which we hope Francis will address.”
Port Moresby (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of people carried candles and torches in the streets of Port Moresby as a first sign of welcome to Pope Francis who arrived this evening in Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his apostolic journey to Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The faithful accompanied the pontiff as his car made its way to the apostolic nunciature, where he will rest tonight before his first public appearances tomorrow morning with the meeting with the Governor General and the address to the authorities and the diplomatic corps.
Francis landed at Port Moresby International Airport, coming from Jakarta, at 7 pm, where he was welcomed by the deputy prime minister on behalf of the government, together with two children in traditional dress who offered flowers to the pontiff in what is the Pope’s first visit to Oceania.
“Thousands of people arrived in the city," said Fr Giorgio Licini, a PIME missionary and secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, speaking from Port Moresby in an interview with the Mondo e Missione (in Italian).
“They came from neighbouring provinces, but also from the rest of the country. Some people have literally walked a week to get to Port Moresby. Others arrived by boat.”
There is great expectation in Papua New Guinea to hear the Pope speak in Port Moresby and Vanimo, the missionary station on the other side of the archipelago's largest island, near the border with Indonesian West Papua..
"The bishops care about social issues, like poverty and lack of work for young people,” Fr Licini explained. “Young people will meet the Pope on Monday at the stadium.”
"There are also thornier issues such as domestic and tribal violence which we hope Francis will address. In the meeting with pastoral workers, a nun working with victims of witchcraft, will also speak. We are looking forward to uplifting words, which will be a guideline for the pastoral journey in coming years.”
.png)
