Pope Francis emphasized the importance of a Catholic Church serving marginalized communities as he concluded his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Saturday, as part of a lengthy Asia tour.

Pope Francis said the world needs to address climate change while visiting the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea, which is partly endangered by a rising Pacific Ocean.

Over mountains, by air, and by sea, pilgrims have flocked to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea's capital where Pope Francis landed late Friday on a landmark visit. With "the presence of the Pope in our land,

Pope Francis’s visit to Papua New Guinea will take him to a remote part of the South Pacific island nation where Christianity is a recent addition to traditional spiritual beliefs developed over mille

Pope Francis held an open-air mass for tens of thousands of Papua New Guinea's faithful on Sunday, imploring this nation "at the edge of the world" to embrace the Catholic faith. Later on Sunday, the pope will travel even further into the "periphery",

In his homily, the Pope drew on the day’s Gospel reading about Jesus healing a deaf man, to emphasize the importance of overcoming distance from God and others, prompting the faithful to reflect on their own relationships.

Pope Francis boarded an Australian Royal Air Force C-130 on Sunday and flew over the pristine jungles of Papua New Guinea, travelling to the faraway settlement of Vanimo as the 87-year-old continues reaching out to what he likes to call the “peripheries” of the Catholic Church.

Francis was elected pope largely on the strength of a speech he gave to his fellow cardinals in 2013 about the need for the church to go out to the 'peripheries'” where people need God most