In Jakarta, Pope Praises Indonesia’s ‘Delicate Balance’ of Unity in Diversity

Pope Francis on Wednesday praised Indonesia’s founding principles of unity in diversity in his first public address in the country but also stressed vigilance against intolerance and extremism.

Francis met with President Joko Widodo on Wednesday morning in Jakarta, the capital, a day after he landed in the country after a 13-hour-long flight from Rome. The pope, in his customary white robes, and Mr. Joko, who was wearing a traditional Islamic hat, stood on the footsteps of the country’s Dutch colonial-era presidential palace as Indonesian honor guards paraded and a marching band played hymns.

Indonesia is the first stop on Francis’s 11-day tour of Asia-Pacific, a grueling physical test for the 87-year-old pope who has made reaching out to Asia a priority of his pontificate. Francis, the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula, has also pushed interfaith harmony as one of his key missions. He plans to do so again in Indonesia, which has the world’s biggest population of Muslims.

In a speech at the presidential palace, Francis compared Indonesia’s religious, ethnic and cultural mix to its biodiversity. Tolerance and mutual respect, he said, helped bring the country together “just as the ocean is the natural element uniting all Indonesian islands.”

He added that unity was a “wise and delicate balance” that “must be continuously defended” and “in a special way by those in political life” in the face of “imbalances and suffering that still persist in some areas.” While Indonesia is overwhelmingly Muslim, it is also home to millions of people who follow other faiths, including Catholicism. It has been a vibrant example of interreligious harmony, but in recent years those in religious minorities have faced discrimination amid