DILI/SINGAPORE - What powers 87-year-old Pope Francis through his historic 12-day Asia-Pacific tour, which has now entered its final leg? 

Top contenders include the papaya, a smooth cappuccino, cookies, nasi goreng and the humble egg. But the winners are the people who surround him – whether his close Vatican aides or the common folk, they energise him all the same.

On Sept 10, the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to Singapore, The Straits Times sat down with a Vatican-based insider on the tour, Father Markus Solo Kewuta, to find out how the pontiff has been managing his most gruelling journey yet, which is also the longest he has taken out of Vatican City.

There have been moments of worry, such as when the head of the Catholic Church, who has struggled with bronchitis, took some moments to clear his throat when making his first speech in Papua New Guinea, the second of four countries he was visiting.

At other times, the Pope, who also deals with knee pain, looked unstable on his feet – for instance, during the formal welcome ceremony in Dili, Timor-Leste, when he had to repeatedly stand and sit. 

But the Pope’s energy, said Father Markus, returns when he is surrounded by people, including the faithful who line the streets to catch a glimpse of him as he makes his way to scheduled events. 

Father Markus, the Pope’s interpreter during the Indonesia leg of the tour, was granted a front row seat with the leader and was nearly always by his side, including at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

He described how the Pope chose to wind down the window in his Popemobile in his first stop in Jakarta, Indonesia – seemingly blind to security concerns.

“As a person who loves people, it doesn’t make sense if you close the window,” said Father Markus, a priest from Indonesia and an official at the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. “Separating himself from the people is not the aim for him when visiting these countries. He wants to be close to the people.” 

The Pope also empathises with the fact that some have come a long way to see him and often wait under the hot sun, he added.

Father Markus himself often watched with some trepidation, especially when people surged towards the car to touch, greet or get a blessing from the Pope.

“Oh my goodness. The car was trembling, moving. I said, ‘Holy Father, be careful, be careful!’” Father Markus said, recounting one incident. “But the windows are always open. He likes it. He enjoys being among people, meeting many people. He is always smiling.”

At the dining table

While meals with Pope Francis are over within 30 minutes, they are punctuated with laughter as he always has a joke to tell at the dining table, Father Markus said.

With him at the table are typically the head of protocol and his guards, personal assistants and interpreter. The Pope takes the same food as everyone, and when offered something special, such as Italian bread, he always shares. “He will ask me to bring it around to other people at the table,” Father Markus said.

It was at meals, over conversations in Italian, that he observed the Pope eating papaya and other tropical fruits every day, trying the local cuisine of the countries he was in, displaying a soft spot for cookies, and always starting his day with a cappuccino.

Father Markus recounted how on the first day, he had not realised that cappuccino was the Pope’s go-to coffee order, and took the first cup that arrived at the table. 

After realising that the Pope also wanted a cappuccino, he asked the pontiff to drink from his untouched cup. But the Pope insisted: “No, no, no, no. For you! For you!” This showed him the person that the Pope is as a leader, Father Markus said.

With a journey involving seven flights in 12 days, the Pope was often asked if he was tired, Father Markus said. The answer on one occasion: “You work, I didn’t work. I am not tired. You must be tired.”

Why Singapore?

After navigating three countries – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste – Pope Francis touched down in Singapore on Sept 11.

The Argentinian, who has a reputation for being the “Pope of the peripheries”, has long prioritised fringe communities where Catholics are a minority, instead of European capitals, calling these more important than the centre of the institutional church. 

Asked why Singapore made it onto the programme, Father Markus said a country does not need to be undeveloped for it to be considered peripheral.

Given that there are only 395,000 Catholics in Singapore, which boasts a population of about 5.9 million, the Republic can be considered a “numerical periphery”, he said. 

This is the Pope playing the role of a “good shepherd, looking for the small and the lowest ones in order to collect them and lead them back to be together with others in the community,” he added.

Singaporeans face challenges that other countries he visited during his tour do not grapple with as much, Father Markus added. “The Pope knows well that prosperity brings all kinds of challenges to our faith. This is interesting for the Pope – living the Catholic faith amid globalisation and economic prosperity, addressing problems related to modernity,” he said.

The Pope is also very curious about Singapore as it, like Vatican City, is a city state, Father Markus said. “He has heard many times about Singapore (that) it is a very advanced country, with high inter-religious tolerance, and is interested to know what Singapore looks like.”

He noted that the Pope brings a mission of peace to the Asia-Pacific, and important themes of the visit include inter-religious peace and collaboration, and the promotion of harmony and reconciliation for people of different faiths.

“The Pope is surely interested to know why Singapore is so peaceful, and with him going around to promote peace and harmony, inspiring experiences like Singapore will help a lot,” said Father Markus. 

“He has learnt things from Indonesia – good and bad things as well – and now he would like to listen to Singaporeans about the ways of living together peacefully, harmoniously.”

Navigating a tense world together

Analysts agreed with this assessment. Mr Bryan Goh, a senior tutor with the department of history at the National University of Singapore, noted that the island state – with 29 parish churches, three devotional churches and close to 400,000 Catholics – should be regarded as an example of the success of implanting Catholicism within a plural worldview. 

Behind this is a Singapore identity that transcends race, given that Singapore, with its unique cultural blend of ethnic Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians, has been shaped as a plural society since its independence in 1965.

The PhD candidate studying the history of Catholicism in South-east Asia said: “How the Catholic religion flourished under a non-Catholic colonial power, and a secular government, amid the Malay-Muslim world in South-east Asia, itself speaks volumes.”

Mr Goh added that the Pope’s key message of inter-religious dialogue means it makes sense for him to stop in Singapore, which is famed for its inter-religiosity and religious tolerance.

Highlighting a 2014 Pew Research Center report that ranked Singapore as the world’s most religiously diverse country, Mr Goh said the location would be the “crowning jewel” in the Pope’s journey in his advocacy for inter-religious dialogue.

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin had said in an interview with Vatican News ahead of the tour that Singapore represents an example of peaceful coexistence in today’s multicultural and multi-religious society.

Dr Alan Chong, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said he understands that Singapore has been trying to get a papal visit to coincide with its International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS). The event aims to foster interfaith and multicultural dialogue, and was last held in 2022.

Singapore once had the Asia-Middle East Dialogue to foster dialogue and mutual understanding, and the ICCS is the later reincarnation of Singapore’s initiative for the world to break out of the mould of civilisational conflict, he added.

“A lot of people miss the significance of this. The Pope aligns completely with Singapore’s vision of fostering religious, interfaith and intercultural dialogue,” Dr Chong said, noting that this shared vision is not commonplace in “today’s very tense world”.

Anthropologist and theologian Michel Chambon, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute, said Singapore is economically, politically and ethnically an important player in the region he is visiting.

“Pope Francis is not against the rich. He knows that we need dialogue and inclusion to address a number of international challenges,” he said. Examples include the ongoing civil war in Myanmar and Asean integration.

He also pointed out that Singapore and the Vatican have more things in common than not. Both are very small countries with highly globalised interests, invest in various forms of global diplomacy, and share a number of common interests to promote international stability, he said. This is why they perceive each other as valuable partners, he noted.

Dr Chambon added that the Pope may invite Singaporean Catholics to pay more attention to the Church’s “social doctrine”, which delves into building more inclusive and integrated societies. The pontiff could thus stress the importance of true reconciliation with one’s neighbours, he said.

If earlier speeches in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are any indication, Pope Francis will not speak directly on contentious issues, he suggested. “Instead, he may demonstrate proximity and gentleness to let everybody decide where they want to stand,” he said.