Vatican News has reported that Pope Francis plans to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore from September 2nd to 13th. This will be his first international visit of 2024. His schedule reads below, as reported by Devin Watkins at that publication:
He travels first to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where he will land on September 3 and remain until September 6.
Pope Francis will then fly east to visit Port Moresby, the capital of Papual New Guinea, and Vanimo on September 6-9.
His next stop will be in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, on September 9-11.
From there, the Pope will travel to Singapore for a 3-day visit on September 11-13.
His visits to these four nations seem to coincide with the total number of Catholics living there. In Indonesia there are 8 million Catholics, 2 million in Papua New Guinea, 1 million in Timor-Leste, and 395,000 in Singapore. This will be his 43rd international trip out of Rome. However, it is worth noting that Pope Francis’ international trips have been trending downward as he faces significant health concerns as he turned 87 in December.
In 2023, Pope Franics made five international papal visits, but only has plans for three visits in 2024.
