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00:00Despite health concerns, Pope Francis was able to wrap up his arduous 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Friday.
00:08The 87-year-old pontiff is set to fly home from Singapore after the longest trip in duration and distance
00:16since becoming the head of the Catholic Church 13 years ago.
00:19His trip has taken him from Muslim-majority Indonesia to the skyscrapers of Singapore
00:23and even his last stop of the sweltering hot jungles of Papua New Guinea, connecting with believers all along the way.
00:30For more on the Pope's trip, let's get the thoughts of Michel Chambon,
00:33a French theologian, cultural anthropologist and author with a focus on Catholicism in Asia.
00:39He joins us now from Singapore. Thank you so much for joining us, Michel.
00:43It's an important visit for the Pope, it seems, for Asia's Catholic population.
00:50Just why was it met with such enthusiasm and gravitas?
00:56Well, I think the highest and surprising enthusiasm came from Indonesia, where we saw millions of Muslims.
01:06So, as you know, Indonesia has the largest Muslim community in the world, 150 million.
01:12And right at its arrival at the airport in Jakarta, by using the car, by waving at people with a very cheap watch,
01:22Pope Francis immediately caught the heart of millions of Indonesians and that set the tone for the entire trip.
01:30Yes, Pope Francis is very well alive, he's able to initiate new vibes and push forward among all religious lines
01:41and he's not just engaged in spiritual matters, but in very temporal ones, even political, and at the crossroads of Asia, Southeast Asia.
01:52Talk to me about those messages that he's been spreading.
01:56What has the main phrase of word basically been used to send to not only Catholics in Asia, but even those of other faiths?
02:08Well, those 12 days have been quite intense and rich.
02:12So, as I just said, Indonesia was a big surprise by the massive popular support Pope Francis received from the Muslims,
02:21who fell in love with this humble, very popular leader.
02:26So, about the need to be true with our faith, Indonesians have a deep belief that religion is a positive force to build a healthy society.
02:37Warmly welcome, Pope Francis.
02:39But then, in Papua New Guinea, we had a totally different situation where the country is entirely Christian,
02:46Catholics are only 26%, but you have a more civil war between different ethnic communities and Christian churches.
02:54Tensions between the Adventists and the rest of Christian churches are real.
02:59We saw a lot of bodyguards, militaries and policemen around the Pope.
03:05The atmosphere was quite tense.
03:07And yet, the Pope took a military airplane and jumped all the way in the north of the country, in a very small village,
03:15to invite himself at the border with Indonesia, in the middle of Papua, where part of the island is, how to say, occupied maybe by Indonesia.
03:27And he didn't say anything about West Papua, that is part of Indonesia, but he just went there.
03:34His message was already clear, to say, this region needs to figure out how we build a more cohesive society,
03:43how do we draw international lines and how do we make those local resources to benefit the people.
03:50You people here, you need to figure out what we want.
03:54And then he flew to Timor-Leste, a country that became entirely Catholic 40 years ago.
04:00Most of the world has no idea, didn't pay attention until he came and realized that the most Catholic country in the world today is in Asia.
04:09It's a tiny island between Australia and China, let's say.
04:16And in this country, the church has played a major role to build a national consciousness and to fight against the Indonesian army.
04:26And the church succeeded. Yet, 20 years after independence, the clergy is kind of enjoying its prestige and privileged position.
04:37And we saw Pope Francis kind of shaking them, saying it's time to wake up and serve the people and build social justice.
04:44It's a very intensive trip. We'll touch on that in a second.
04:47But you're talking about all of these countries which he's visited, including East Timor, that last one of the island nation, 600,000 Catholics there.
04:55Do we think that Beijing and China are in his sights? Ultimately, it would make him the first pope to visit there.
05:03So Timor is one and one and a half million people and all of them are Catholics.
05:08It's Singapore where we have 600.
05:12So the entire trip was a statement, a political statement for all the political leaders of the region to show them how the pope can play in the political spheres of the region and make a contribution.
05:26He doesn't drop money, guns or pre-made agendas. He's just visiting as a brother and motivating people to talk and deliberate on what do they want as a social project together.
05:43So clearly, for sure, China has paid a great deal of attention to this trip to see how the pope might be an interesting partner, maybe more a resource to mobilise than a risk to manage.
06:01An interesting diplomatic path to basically just assess there for China.
06:07But let's now focus on the pope himself. He's done this massive tour, the biggest since he became pontiff and quite a strenuous tour at that.
06:18How has he managed? What is the latest situation with his health?
06:24Well, clearly, it's been a big surprise for all observers.
06:28We heard a lot of reports on how the health of the pope was declining, his mental sharpness as well.
06:36And yet we saw him the past 12 days jumping almost every day from country to country, being really engaging, vibrant, dynamic with local people, adjusting his style and way to very delicate situation.
06:55And even this morning, like five hours ago, just before he went to his plane and left Singapore, he decided to go off the script, let his speech out and to offer a lesson to young people in Singapore, making them repeat, take risk, take risk.
07:17He even mentioned the term of dictatorship and talked about the importance to be courageous.
07:23So all observers were surprised, even here in Singapore, how Pope Francis is still keeping the initiative and being able to push people to move forward.
07:37At 87 years old, I think that is, I mean, it's it is quite a it's a very curious way that he has actually taken this to the politics of the countries, but at the same time managed to maintain the religious sanctimony of it in terms of the spiritual message.
07:55One spiritual message just to take forward for Asia as a whole after this trip, very briefly, if you will.
08:03Well, clearly for all every single country, the message was you have to care.
08:08You have to move out of your comfort zone and take care of the people around you.
08:14Don't fall asleep in your own little community of privileges.
08:21Be aware, be aware and take risks.
08:24Those messages there from Pope Francis.
08:26Thank you so much, Michel Chambon, who joined us there from Singapore.
08:30A very acute and acclaimed author of those issues around Catholicism in Asia.