Pope to preside over interfaith meeting in Indonesian mosque during longest, most challenging trip

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis will preside over an interfaith meeting in a mosque in the world’s largest predominantly Muslim country during a four-nation Asian visit in September that will be the longest and most complicated foreign trip of his pontificate.

The Vatican on Friday released the itinerary for Francis’ Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The packed schedule makes clear that the 87-year-old pontiff, who has battled health problems and is increasingly reliant on a wheelchair, has no plans to slow down.

After a day of rest upon arrival in Jakarta on Sept. 3, Francis launches into a typically rigorous round of protocol visits to heads of state and government, speeches to diplomats and meetings with clergy and public Masses.

Francis will be the third pope to visit Indonesia, after Pope Paul VI in 1970 and Pope John Paul II in 1989. About 87% of Indonesia’s 277 million people are Muslim, but the country also has Southeast Asia’s second-largest Christian population, after the Philippines, and the third-largest in Asia after the Philippines and China.

In Jakarta, he’ll preside over an interfaith meeting at the capital’s Istiqlal Mosque, expected to be attended by leaders of the six religions in Indonesia that are officially recognized and protected: Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.

Francis is also expected to walk through a tunnel, called the “Tunnel of Friendship,” connecting the grand mosque to the neo-Gothic Our Lady of The Assumption Cathedral, which was constructed by Indonesian authorities in 2020.

As a result, the first leg of Francis’ four-nation trip is likely to heavily emphasize interreligious harmony and tolerance, a theme he has hammered