“You’re doing one thing lovely, and it’s important that you’re not left alone,” Francis informed the gang, which the Vatican estimated at 20,000, of missionaries and Catholic devoted from Vanimo in a gathering exterior the city’s one-storey, wood-panelled cathedral parish.
“You reside in an impressive land, enriched by an awesome number of crops and birds,” stated the pope. “The great thing about the panorama is matched by the fantastic thing about a group the place folks love each other”.
The Rev. Tomas Ravaioli, one of many missionaries, stated he couldn’t imagine the pope had truly come to Vanimo. “He’s maintaining his promise to return,” stated the priest. “We can not imagine 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 lots of of tribes, together with dozens of uncontacted peoples.
As with different occasions all through his keep within the nation, Francis was greeted in a subject exterior the cathedral with a standard dance from a gaggle sporting feathered headdresses and straw skirts.
The pope additionally heard 4 testimonies from native Catholics. Steven Abala, a lay trainer, described how some rural communities, reduce 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.
