Pope Francis has arrived in Indonesia

Source: Vatican News/IBC

After a 13-hour flight, Pope Francis landed in Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport today at 11.19am local time, a few minutes early, for the start of his 45th Apostolic Journey, to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, and Singapore. The ITA-Airways plane left Rome's Fiumicino International Airport at 5.32pm local time on Monday. During the journey, the Holy Father individually greeted each member of the press on board.

On landing Pope Francis told reporters: "I thank you for coming on this journey. I think it is the longest one I have ever done. Once he disembarked in his wheelchair Pope Francis was welcomed warmly welcomed by a guard of honour, officials. Two children in traditional costumes presented him with a bouquet of flowers.

The Holy Father was driven from the airport in a civilian Toyota car, choosing a modest vehicle rather than a luxury one usually used by world leaders.

While he was meant to be taking things easy today, with no public events on his schedule, shortly after Pope Francis arrived at the apostolic nunciature in Jakarta, he privately met with refugees taken in by the Jesuit Refugee Service, orphaned children raised by Dominican nuns, as well as elderly, refugees, and homeless people accompanied by the Indonesian Community of Sant'Egidio.

The Holy Father will spend three nights in Jakarta, before continuing his visit. The Pope will be welcomed by Cardinals in each country, three of whom were created Cardinals by Pope Francis himself, as the first-ever Eminences of their countries.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim majority nation, is a very large country consisting of many islands, almost 17,000 of them and many tribes, ethnic groups, languages and cultures. The first Pope to visit Indonesia was St Paul VI in 1970. Pope St John Paul II visited in 1989.

Indonesia is widely seen as a model of tolerance and coexistence. While Catholics are just about three percent of the primarily Muslim population - there are eight million Catholics in the country's 280 million people - interreligious relations have usually been very good.

In an interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Jakarta said it is very common for men and women of different faiths, such as Catholics and Muslims, to marry, which is not typical within other Muslim-majority countries. He also noted that often priests come from families where a parent is Muslim or Buddhist.

In Jakarta, the Pope will partake in an interreligious meeting in the Istiqlal Mosque and will celebrate Mass for the country's Catholics.

The motto of Pope Francis journey here is: 'Faith, Fraternity, Compassion.'