“You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone,” Francis told the crowd, which the Vatican estimated at 20,000, of missionaries and Catholic faithful from Vanimo in a meeting outside the town’s one-storey, wood-panelled cathedral parish.
“You live in a magnificent land, enriched by a great variety of plants and birds,” said the pope. “The beauty of the landscape is matched by the beauty of a community where people love one another”.
The Rev. Tomas Ravaioli, one of the missionaries, said he could not believe the pope had actually come to Vanimo. “He is keeping his promise to come,” said the priest. “We cannot believe it. At his age he is making an enormous effort.”
A sprawling country of mountains, jungle and rivers, PNG is home to more than 800 languages and hundreds of tribes, including dozens of uncontacted peoples.
As with other events throughout his stay in the country, Francis was greeted in a field outside the cathedral with a traditional dance from a group wearing feathered headdresses and straw skirts.
The pope also heard four testimonies from local Catholics. Steven Abala, a lay teacher, described how some rural communities, cut off from roads, must wait weeks or months between visits by priests.
Abala presented Francis with a headdress with yellow and brown feathers, which the pope tried on.
Source: CNA
