Why is Pope Francis on such an extended tour when he is in such poor health?

Pope Francis, who often takes delight in perplexing and astonishing others, is doing just that again.

He has signaled many times over the years that he was slowing down, only to then ramp up again.

Nearly 88 years old, he suffers from a knee problem that limits his mobility, abdominal problems caused by diverticulitis and a loss of most of his lung that leaves him vulnerable to respiratory illnesses.

The pope said last fall that health problems were making it difficult for him to travel abroad, and he canceled a trip to the UAE soon after, fuelling speculation about the extent of his health problems.

But that was a long time ago.

The pope is currently in the middle of his longest foreign tour of his 11-and-a-half-year papacy, a packed tour that will take him to East Timor as well as three other countries with Catholic minorities: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

So why does the Pope travel so widely and far?

His supporters say he is driven by passion.

“He clearly has extraordinary stamina, driven by an absolute passion for the mission,” says Fr Anthony Chantry, the UK director of the papal missionary charity Missio and his newly appointed head of the Vatican administration’s Evangelization Department.

“He speaks of the tireless mission we all have to reach out to others and lead by example.”

Christian “mission” has evolved over the centuries: it is still about spreading the gospel, but now its stated purpose is focused on social justice and charitable work.

Pope Francis will meet with missionaries throughout the trip, including a group from Argentina now based in Papua New Guinea, but this and other trips across Asia have also brought him closer to China, which has deep suspicions about the church, its mission and its motives.

The Pope has frequently emphasized the importance of evangelization for all Catholics, but in many parts of the world it is still difficult to separate the concepts of “missionary” and “evangelization” from those of European colonization.

With the number of Catholics in Europe declining, does “mission” or “evangelization” in Asia and Africa now mean an expansion of the Church in those regions?

“I think what he’s preaching is a gospel of love that doesn’t harm anybody. He’s not trying to drum up support for the church. That’s not what evangelization is about,” Father Anthony said.

“This is not the same as proselytizing. We haven’t done anything like that for a long time. It’s not the Pope’s agenda, it’s not the church’s agenda. What we do is share and help people in any way we can, whether they have faith or not.”

Father Anthony said being a modern-day Christian missionary, as modelled by Pope Francis, means doing good work and listening, but also challenging thinking at times “when necessary”.

“I believe God will do the rest. If it helps people accept Jesus Christ, that’s great. And if it helps people to appreciate their spirituality, their culture more, then I consider that another success.”

Indeed, the Pope has long spoken about interfaith harmony and respect for other faiths, and perhaps the most memorable moment of his visit was when he was seen kissing the hand of the grand imam of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque and placing it against his cheek.

He was given a warm welcome by those who came to see him in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

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Pope Francis will end his long journey in Singapore, a country where about three-quarters of the population is of Chinese descent but where a Catholic minority is heavily involved in missionary work in poor areas.

Singapore has been a strategic regional hub for the Catholic Church for centuries, and anything Pope Francis says there is likely to be closely watched by China, particularly its Catholic population, estimated at about 12 million people, though precise numbers are hard to come by.

The figures are unclear in part because Chinese Catholics are split between China’s official Catholic Church and an underground church loyal to the Vatican that developed under Communism.

Pope Francis has been accused of trying to unite the two groups, appeasing Beijing and abandoning underground Catholics who refuse to accept Chinese government interference and face the threat of persecution.

In recent years, a deal between the Vatican and Beijing seems to have created a situation where the Chinese government appoints Catholic bishops and the Pope caves in and approves them. China claims it’s a matter of sovereignty and Pope Francis claims he has the final say, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“The pope is not going to please everyone all the time, but I think what he’s really trying to show is that the church is not a threat to the state,” Father Anthony Chantry said. “He’s treading a very careful path, and it’s going to be difficult, but I think all he’s trying to do is have a respectful relationship with the Chinese government.”

Rightly or wrongly, it’s all done in the name of welcoming more people into the Church. Some of Pope Francis’ predecessors were more uncompromising in many ways, willing to embrace a smaller and “purer” global Catholic community rather than making concessions on foreign relations or the Church’s views on divorce, homosexuality, etc.

While some popes are clearly more comfortable devoting themselves to study and theology than to travelling and being surrounded by large crowds, others have made their positions politically focused.

Traveling with Pope Francis, it is very clear that although he often appears tired and subdued during diplomatic events, he is quickly invigorated by the large crowds that come to see him and invigorated by meeting people other than dignitaries, especially young people.

This is not a pope who shuns the limelight: being among the people, some might say a sense of mission, seems to be his lifeline.

Father Anthony Chantry says this latest and longest papal trip is just a continuing indication of how the pope is thinking about how the church should engage with both Catholics and non-Catholics.

“The whole goal is to reach out to others. Everyone has to feel welcome. I think he (Pope Francis) does that really well, but he’s not trying to score points there, it’s just his own effort.”

The pope has done very little since his election in 2013 that hasn’t angered Catholic traditionalists, who often feel his Enlightenment ethos has gone too far, and his actions on this visit are unlikely to change that.

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