Of all the places in the world where the pope would address more than 60,000 people in a stadium for mass, Muslim-majority Indonesia might not come to mind.
But Pope Francis's first trip to South-East Asia's largest country this week will shine a spotlight on Indonesia's religious diversity and efforts by the pontiff to encourage good relations with the Muslim world.
The 87-year-old leader of the Catholic Church will touch down in Jakarta on Tuesday, in the first papal trip to Indonesia since John Paul II visited 35 years ago.
And like that trip, this visit will include mass at Jakarta's Gelora Bung Karno stadium, with 60,000 Catholics inside plus another 26,000 at an adjacent smaller stadium.
"I think everyone's really excited," said Christina Sari, who has given her allocated spot at the stadium mass to another parishioner.
She said an influx of Catholics from other parts of the country for the pope's visit meant many in Jakarta who wanted to be among the worshippers would miss out.
"Although Catholics are not a very big percentage here, our community is very strong," she told the ABC.
Catholics only account for 3 per cent of Indonesians, but that is still more than 8-9 million people in total — more than the number in Australia.
"I feel it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a pope travelling all the way from the Vatican to Indonesia," Louisa Wijaya, a parishioner in her 20s, said.
Homes bulldozed for pope's visit
The four-day visit is the first in a four-leg journey that will also take in Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste — the only nation on the itinerary where Catholics are the majority.
While there is a lot of excitement in the capital Dili, that has been somewhat offset by the considerable expense of hosting the visit and the controversial bulldozing of homes.
Pope Francis will finish the 12-day journey in Singapore with another stadium mass.
The Asia-Pacific visit was first planned to take place four years ago, but was scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite increasing health problems, Pope Francis committed to the trip.
"Pope Francis is big on going out to the peripheries, where particularly the poor, the vulnerable, those who might not normally get attention are," said Joel Hodge, a lecturer in theology at the Australian Catholic University.
He said that could explain the Vatican's decision that the pope should visit three developing neighbouring countries, but not Australia.
"I think the pope has to draw a line somewhere on how many countries he can visit. And I think he wants to support those countries that haven't always had much attention," Dr Hodge said.
Vatican wants to send message of peace
The four days in Jakarta will include a visit to Indonesia's largest place of worship, the Istiqlal Mosque, in an overture stressing religious tolerance.
Istiqlal mosque's grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, told The Associated Press this week the visit provided an opportunity "to discuss the common ground between religious communities and emphasise the commonalities between religions, ethnicities and beliefs".
The Vatican said the overarching aim of the papal visit was to spread a message of peace.
"I think in general in many parts of Indonesia, especially the cities, tolerance is well maintained," Romo Thomas Ulun Ismoyo, a priest at Jakarta's biggest Cathedral, told the ABC.
"But we have to be up-front that you occasionally get incidents here and there in some parts of the country."
In July, a man was detained by anti-terror police in the east Java city of Malang, accused of plotting attacks on "places of worship", though authorities did not say if that meant churches.
Police in South Tangerang, a part of greater Jakarta, earlier this year detained four suspects after they allegedly led a mob to intimidate and attack Catholic students performing a rosary ceremony.
In 2021, two suicide bombers died when they attacked a cathedral in South Sulawesi, injuring some worshippers.
And in 2018, a couple supportive of Islamic State used their own children to bomb three churches in the city of Surabaya, killing more than eight people aside from the attackers.
"I think overall religious tolerance is advancing quite well because we don't have that many acts of terrorism happening these days," said Yenni Wahid, the director of Islamic research centre The Wahid Foundation.
"It's not as rampant as it was in the past."
She attributes the change to the vigilance of police and security agencies, but also the growing efforts of religious groups, governments and other organisations to counter radicalism.
"Even if you're not Catholic, many Indonesians are still excited that the pope would come here," she said.
"It's symbolic of the geo-strategic importance of Indonesia."
The Vatican is stressing "fraternity between believers of different religions", which will also apply in Papua New Guinea — a heavily Christian country but one where Catholics are a minority.
Cost of visit might dint sheen of pope's trip
Dr Hodge believes growing the Catholic flock is not an obvious goal of the visit.
"I don't think it's an explicit attempt to draw people away from their existing faith traditions, I think it's more about building up positive relationships," he said.
In Timor Leste, the church looms large, with close to 98 per cent of Timorese identifying as Catholic, according to the most recent census.
It played a supportive role in the Timorese struggle for independence against Indonesia. And recent scandals seemingly have not diminished the church's influence.
Those scandals include the Vatican's disciplinary action against a Nobel-peace-prize-winning bishop accused of historical child abuse, and the separate jailing of American priest Richard Daschbach in Timor Leste for abusing children at an orphanage.
The Vatican's belated public admission in 2022 that it had two years earlier imposed disciplinary sanctions on Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo for abusing boys has done little to detract from his reputation as a hero of the resistance.
At least one billboard in the capital welcoming Pope Francis for the visit features his image.
Campaigners against child abuse were aghast that independence hero and former president Xanana Gusmao attended a birthday party for Daschbach in 2021, while he was awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
But if anything could take the gloss off the papal visit, it would be the cost.
The government has allocated $17.65 million for the three-day visit to the country with limited resources.
