Pope Francis will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore from September 2 to 13. It will be his longest trip since his election as supreme pontiff in 2013.
In recent years, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has been using a wheelchair for two years, has had numerous health problems, particularly in his knees, hips and colon. In December, bronchitis forced him to cancel his trip to Dubai for COP28, the major annual climate summit organized by the United Nations. The pope continues to work at a very demanding pace in the Vatican, where he sometimes receives ten people in a single morning. He also plans three trips soon within Italy, the first of which will be to Venice on April 28. He has also expressed his desire to visit Argentina, though the Vatican has not confirmed it nor has a date been defined. the pope has already made 44 trips abroad, the last of which was to Marseille, in the south of France, last September.