Day Two in PNG: Justice, closeness, compassion and tenderness

By Linda Bordoni

It may have been protocol but it was beautiful, thanks to the presence, along the streets and outside the Government House of thousands of Papuans, proudly decked in their tribal glory, with feathers, flowers, body and face paint, waving an infinity of Vatican and Papuan flags.

In the country where over 600 different tribes speak over 800 different languages, Pope Francis expressed fascination for such a wealth of diversity. But never straying from his constant call to nurture fraternity and promote the common good, he urged for a fairer distribution of income from the country’s natural resources and for efforts to curb violence.

“While foreign companies are involved in resource extraction, he said, “it is only fair that local populations benefit from the income and labour to improve their living conditions.”

The Pope did not step back from addressing gender inequality saying that women “are the ones who carry the country forward, they give life, build and grow a country.” Women, he repeated, are “on the front line of human and spiritual development.”

In the afternoon, addressing Bishops, clergy, religious, seminarians and catechists, he picked up the thread again urging those present to take care of those who are “marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition” (with a clear reference to witchcraft practices) “sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives.”

Be there for those on the peripheries, he said, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”

And upholding the testimonies of faith by saints and martyred missionaries depicted in the shrine’s stained-glass windows, the Pope encouraged those present to emulate the saints by bringing Christ to “the peripheries of this country.”

“I think of people belonging to the most deprived segments of urban populations, as well as those who live in the most remote and abandoned areas, where sometimes basic necessities are lacking.”

The Church, he reminded them, “desires especially to be close to these brothers and sisters.”

And as always, the most moving encounter was the one dedicated to the people who receive that assistance. In this case, street children and disabled persons gathered at the Caritas Technical School in Port Moresby to sing and to dance for him.

And as always, very few words were needed: just being there - so many thousands of kilometres from home - just making them feel he cares, that no one is more important than the other, in fact that God – and he – loves them even more.