As Pope Francis on Sept. 12 celebrated a Mass in one of Asia’s thriving metropolises — encouraging the small Singaporean Christian community in its “constructive dialogue” with other traditions — the closely watched papal visit here is fueling hopes he might continue to break down barriers in other places on the continent where Catholicism has been met with resistance.
“I hope that someday soon the pope can visit China,” said Wang Yen, who is originally from Harbin, China, but who has lived here the last nine years.
Throughout Francis’ nearly two-week, four-country tour through Asia and Oceania, the pope has repeatedly insisted on his desire for the Catholic Church to be more missionary and more focused on its peripheries. As this ambitious journey winds down — he is due to return to Rome on Sept. 13 — his final stop here in Singapore has only further underscored Catholicism’s pivot to Asia under his papacy and heightened aspirations that the trend will continue.
While China and the Holy See do not have official diplomatic relations — and no pope has ever visited the world’s second most populous country — China has loomed large over this leg of the journey.
Yet here in Singapore’s National Stadium — where some 50,000 Catholics had turned out for the papal Mass — it wasn’t just Chinese Catholics eager to cheer on the pope’s focus on Asia and dream of potential papal visits to their own respective homelands.
“I hope in the near future he is coming to visit,” said Vu Hgoc Minh Tuyen, who traveled here with some 500 Catholics from Vietnam.
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With thanks to National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Christopher White, where this article originally appeared.
