PORT MORESBY – Pope Francis has told bishops, clergy and religious in Papua New Guinea to be close to those on the peripheries and to continue spreading hope, despite the challenges and misunderstandings they may face. Speaking inside Port Moresby’s Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, the Pope told pastors to “focus their work on the peripheries of this country.”

“I think of people belonging to the most deprived segments of urban populations, as well as those who live in the most remote and abandoned areas, where sometimes basic necessities are lacking,” he said, also pointing to those marginalized and wounded due to prejudice and superstition. The Church, he said, “desires especially to be close to these brothers and sisters, because in them Jesus is present in a special way And where he, our head, is present, there are we, his members, for we belong to the same body.”