VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — On September 2, Pope Francis began one of the busiest periods of his pontificate, with foreign travel and the Synod on Synodality filling several weeks of his calendar and serving as a show of strength in the 11th year of his reign.

Leaving Rome’s Fiumicino airport on the evening of September 2, Pope Francis began the longest and arguably most physically taxing voyage of his pontificate to date.

Traveling to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, Francis will not return to Rome until September 13. By the time he lands in Rome, Francis will have traveled around 20,000 miles.

But this is only the start of a series of engagements that will keep the 87-year-old Argentinian pontiff busy until the end of October. After returning to Rome and assuming his customary engagements there, Francis will travel to Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of September.

With the second – and key – session of the Synod on Synodality commencing on October 2 and lasting through the entire month, Francis’ calendar is bursting.

Pope in Asia

His grueling schedule begins in Jakarta in earnest on September 4, after having taken a day to recover from the jetlag.

As is customary on his voyages, Francis will meet with civil and religious leaders, groups of young people, seminarians, Jesuits and representatives of other creeds. Indeed, this final aspect is a key part of the pope’s voyage to Southeast Asia.

“The interreligious Dialogue Program is really the center of the visit of Pope Francis to Indonesia,” Fr. Marcus Solo Kewuta, SVD – an official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue – told Vatican News.

Confirmed by the Vatican in April, the pope’s choice of countries for his 45th apostolic journey struck some as peculiar, given they are notable not so much for the large number of Catholics but for high Muslim populations.

Indonesia is nearly 90 percent Muslim and just around 3 percent of the population is Catholic. Aside from meeting the president, civil leaders and diplomats, Catholic clergy, and the local Jesuit province members in respective meetings, Francis will include a key inter-religious event in the “pluralistic” Indonesia.

On September 5, Francis will join with Muslim leaders in Jakarta’s immense Istiqlal Mosque, where they will sign a joint document highlighting peace and mutual understanding. The joint document is to be in the style of the 2019 Abu Dhabi document, which has been highlighted by Francis as a tool to foster relations between the Holy See and certain Islamic leaders.

Speaking to EWTN’s Colm Flynn, the Istiqlal Mosque Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar said that the community was eagerly anticipating the papal visit.

The Indonesian government led a project called the “Tunnel of Friendship,” which joins the mosque to the local Catholic cathedral just across the road. Umar stated that the tunnel represents that humanity is all “from the same grandfather, Abraham, we worship the same god. Humanity is only one.”

“The Pope’s presence at Istiqlal, therefore, is not just a gesture of goodwill but a reaffirmation of the Catholic Church’s commitment to promoting dialogue and understanding among diverse religious communities,” commented Fr. Dimas Danang Agus Widayanto, a priest of the Diocese of Purwokerto.

The remainder of Francis’ trip through Southeast Asia will follow similar patterns to previous voyages he has made across the globe. He will hold meetings with leading political figures, groups of faithful – young, old and invalid – and groups of clerics. Francis will offer Mass in stadiums and similar large venues while also having number of more private engagements, such as the visit of invalids and immigrants to the Apostolic Nunciature during his quieter day, Tuesday.

Flying to Papua New Guinea on the morning of September 6, Francis will spend time in the capital of Port Moresby and the northern city of Vanimo before departing for East Timor on September 9.

Leaving the country on September 11, the papal voyage moves then to Singapore for two nights before returning to Rome on September 13.

Summarizing the Pope’s journey, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin empathized the “theme of closeness” while noting the various key aspects of each country of corruption, inter-religious dialogue, economic instability, violence and climate change issues.

“To build peace, it is necessary to strive to adopt the attitudes that each apostolic journey proposes: to meet, look each other in the eye, and speak sincerely,” Parolin said.

To Belgium and the Synod

After returning to Rome on September 13, Pope Francis will not be long back at the Casa Santa Martha before leaving for another trip, though this time much closer.

Rumors floated earlier in the year that the Pope would make a surprise appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, although with no announcement from the Vatican as yet such a trip is now unlikely.

From September 26 through September 29, he will be in Luxembourg and Brussels. His itinerary currently includes meeting with the Grand Duke, the prime minister, civil leaders and then Catholics. This is followed by a visit to the Belgian king and prime minister, the civil leaders in Belgium, and after this a series of meetings with university professors, clerics and Jesuits.

Even as Francis is offering Mass in Brussels, participants of the second session of the multiyear Synod on Synodality will be arriving in Rome for the beginning of the month-long proceedings.

Two days later, Francis will be in St. Peter’s Square for the opening Mass of the Synod’s pivotal gathering.

Just as last year, Francis will likely be regularly present at the daily meetings of the Synod, even on days at which he is not scheduled to do so.

Last year saw Francis hold a series of high-profile meetings alongside the Synod, including welcoming key LGBT advocates to the Vatican such as Fr. James Martin, SJ and Sr. Jeannine Gramick.

In the middle of October, taking a brief intermission from the Synod meetings that run Monday through Saturday, Francis will offer a canonization Mass in the square on October 20.

He will then preside over the concluding Mass for the Synod on October 27, flanked by the hundreds of participants and the assembled dignitaries of the Roman Curia.

Autumn in perspective

Beginning this two-month period with such a vast papal voyage sets the stage for what will be an incredibly hectic period for those in the papal household.

His trip to Asia presents many angles from which to analyze and numerous elements to highlight. Colm Flynn has extensively documented the deep impact the Pope’s presence is anticipated to have among the many Catholic communities of the islands of Southeast Asia.

As #PopeFrancis embarks on the longest trip of his papacy to Southeast Asia, I traveled ahead of him to Indonesia, Singapore, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea, to learn about the challenges facing the Church in these very different countries. Here is the full report: @EWTNews pic.twitter.com/yqNsLgWQOJ

— Colm Flynn (@colmflynnire) August 31, 2024

The abandoned and disabled children, too often cast aside by society, will suddenly be put back into a global spotlight when Pope Francis visits the religious community of sisters caring for them. So also will the Catholic communities be buoyed by the mass arrival of a papal entourage and all that it entails, providing new vitality in areas where they are a tiny minority.

Indeed, even in an age seeing the proliferation of papal visits in recent decades, the local host communities in Asia – especially Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor – appear to be eagerly anticipating the visit of historic importance.

But there is also the assessment of each papal voyage from the Roman perspective. In the context of recent years beset with health problems, Francis’ decision to make his longest voyage and perhaps the most taxing has surprised many.

Last November, he had to abandon his trip to the U.N.’s climate summit at the last minute, just hours after journalists were briefed on details about the papal voyage.

Earlier in 2023, he was hospitalized twice – in March and then in June – and the immense obfuscation from the Holy See about the papal health in his March hospitalization fueled rumors that a papal conclave could be imminent.

Assuming all goes to plan, Francis’ autumn schedule will serve as a warning shot to cardinals quietly campaigning for support for a papal conclave – an event that is always inevitable, though hard to predict.

Francis continues to defy expectations in regard to his physical abilities, and those expecting the closing period of his pontificate to be quiet will surely be disappointed. While having a noticeably quieter summer, the Argentine is sending a notice to the world, but crucially to the Roman Curia and the college of cardinals, namely that he will continue to run his pontificate in his style until the day he dies.

Aided now by his compatriot Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis’ pontificate looks set to remain still as hectic and unpredictable as it has ever been.