ASIA - “We must go to Asia.” What prompted Pope Francis to look East?

by Paolo Affatato

(Fides Agency) - Universality, inculturation, mercy, and reference to the Sacraments: throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has recognized in the dynamic spread and living of the Gospel in Asian countries an example of authenticity and a valid paradigm for the Church throughout the world.

“We must go to Asia,” Pope Francis said in 2013, at the beginning of his pontificate, upon his return from Brazil, and the trips to Asia that followed immediately (to Korea in 2014, Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015) quickly fulfilled his desire to follow this path and meet the peoples of the East. This desire also took shape with trips to Myanmar and Bangladesh (2017), Thailand and Japan (2019), Kazakhstan (2022), Mongolia (2023), and most recently Indonesia, East Timor, and Singapore (2024).

Pope Francis' view of the diverse reality of Asian peoples and their civilizations is light years away from the traps of Western-style neocolonialism. On the contrary, his attitude is always one of learning, of grasping signs and lessons that can also be useful for believers living in countries with an ancient Christian tradition.

“I was in the heart of Asia and it did me good. It is good to enter into dialogue with this great continent, to understand its messages, to get to know its wisdom, its way of looking at things, of embracing time and space,” said Pope Francis on his return from his apostolic journey to Mongolia. Francis recalled that the Mongolian people are a “humble and joyful” Catholic community, and revealed one of its defining characteristics: “It is far from the limelight, where the signs of God's presence are often found.” “The Lord,” he explained, ”does not seek the center stage, but the simple heart of those who long for him and love him, without appearing, without wanting to elevate themselves above others.”
On the largest and most pluralistic continent, the cradle of the great religions, where Catholic communities are often tiny, hidden, and completely insignificant, Pope Francis recognized the importance of catholicity, “an inculturated universality that takes up the good where it lives and serves the people with whom it lives.” The Pope praised the exemplary witness of missionaries who, often in contexts where Christ had not yet arrived, sowed the seeds “not of a universalism that is homologous, but of a universalism that is inculturated.” In Central Asia, “the missionaries went to live like the Mongolian people, to speak the language of this people, to adopt the values of this people, and to preach the Gospel in the Mongolian way. They went and inculturated themselves: they adopted the Mongolian culture in order to inculturate the Gospel in that culture.”

Precisely because of their structural condition as a “small flock,” the Catholic communities in various Asian countries have been able to develop their mission as “works and places of mercy,” that is, to present themselves as “open, welcoming places where the misery of every human being can come into contact, without shame, with the mercy of God, which uplifts and heals.” In these contexts, the Pope added, “it is crucial to see and recognize the good. It is important, like the Mongolian people, to look upward, toward the light of goodness. Only in this way, starting from the recognition of the good, can we contribute to making it better.” ”Let us remember how many seeds of goodness are hidden in the garden of the world, while we usually only hear the sound of falling trees!” And, also referring to the Mongolian people, but with a remark that is valid in many other contexts, he remarked: “What kind of people cherish their roots and traditions, respect their elders, and live in harmony with their environment? It is a people who search the heavens and feel the breath of creation. When we think of the boundless and silent expanses of Mongolia, we should be guided by the need to broaden the horizons of our vision.”

From this experience, Francis drew the universal lesson that “we must expand the limits of our gaze so that we can see the good in others and broaden our horizons. And we must also expand our hearts: expand our hearts to understand, to be close to every person and every civilization.” This is a key that expresses and sums up the sometimes troubled gaze of the Successor of Peter on the small Catholic communities in Asian countries. These communities rely more on the power and grace of the Holy Spirit than on their economic, political, or media power. And they continue to have two strengths for their mission: the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession, which Francis has always considered and described as the sources of all missionary work.

The Eucharist, the sacrament in which God offers himself, his flesh and blood, thereby breaking the cycle of violence and death. The cycle of life and death is a central theme in religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, all of which originated on the Asian continent: hence, the sacrament of the Eucharist has a very special power and meaning for Asian peoples. This power and significance can be found, for example, in communities immersed in a reality—think of Afghanistan—where the political situation does not allow for the full exercise of religious freedom: there, it is still possible to celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist, the living presence of Christ. A second strength of the Church's mission is the sacrament of Confession, which enables believers to enter into a relationship with God and, through a human mediator, to receive forgiveness and reconciliation, an existential gift that comes from above and is not merely the fruit of a commitment to prayer or a path of personal purification. That is why “our Eucharistic celebrations are full of non-Christians,” explains Father Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález, Apostolic Prefect of Battambang in predominantly Buddhist Cambodia, “and among them many are beginning the journey toward baptism.”
(PA) ( Fides Agency 28/4/2025)

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