Francis arrived at Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, in the morning, driving past streets lined with well-wishers in a metropolis that is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world.
His arrival in the archipelago country "excels information for us, something that reinforces our confidence," said Daddy Hieronymus Sridanto Ariwobo, a Catholic clergyman in Jakarta.
"And second of all, the pope will come here as an icon (of) the partnership in between the Christian and Muslim here in the nation."
Traditionally, the country's form of Islam is moderate and syncretic, often resting comfortably along with animist and various other pre-Islamic techniques, while the mention ideological background, known as "Pancasila," urges spiritual liberty and social justice.
"Indonesia is a great nation, a mosaic of societies, ethnic cultures and spiritual practices, an abundant variety, which is also reflected in the varied environment," Francis said throughout Thursday's inter-faith meeting, which the pontiff invested in a mobility device. "May no one catch the attraction of fundamentalism and physical violence."
The 87-year-old is presently on the lengthiest journey of his pontificate, despite facing wellness challenges and having actually began to use a mobility device in the last few years.
He is scheduled to hold a mass at Jakarta's Nationwide Arena later on Thursday, which is expected to be attended by about 80,000 individuals.
The following day he fallen leaves for Papua New Guinea, the second leg of a marathon 12-day visit of 4 nations in Southeast europe or australia and the Southern Pacific, which also consists of Eastern Timor and Singapore.
Indonesia is a symbolically solid choice for the type of inter-faith approach Francis has welcomed.
In the 13th century, investors from Arabia, Gujarat and China reached what is currently Indonesia, buying cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Some of those spice-trade sellers also brought with them Islam and, as some picked the islands of Java and Sumatra, the faith progressively combined with local animist ideas.
Christianity pertained to Indonesia with Portuguese investors greater than 200 years later on, mainly in the eastern islands of Maluku and Timor. The Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier operated in the Maluku islands, but by the late 1600s the Dutch Eastern India Company had gotten rid of all Catholic missionaries.
After Japanese occupation throughout the Second World Battle, nationalist leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed Indonesian freedom in 1945. Muslims and Christians have coexisted in Indonesia for years since its modern founding, and most of its Islamic believers are generally moderate and syncretic.
