Pope travelling through Asia and Oceania with different personnel

The blue ITA plane breaks through a hazy grey veil on Tuesday morning: Pope Francis is approaching Jakarta. The Indonesian metropolis is the first destination of the Pope's longest trip abroad to date. Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore will follow until 13 September. During the flight, Francis greets the journalists travelling with him and his entourage more hurriedly than usual, but with joy. However, the composition of his entourage changed considerably during this exhausting trip.

At short notice, Francis had to do without his "number two". Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin travelled to his northern Italian homeland on Sunday following the death of his 96-year-old mother. He will spend the next few days there with his family.

Only one curia cardinal on board

This means that only one of the two planned curia cardinals remains: the Philippine-born Vatican missionary Luis Antonio Tagle. Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso, who is responsible for interreligious dialogue, is not on board for the visit to predominantly Muslim Indonesia - probably for health reasons. The Swiss Cardinal and "Ecumenism Minister" Kurt Koch is also absent. By way of comparison, five cardinals accompanied the Pope on his last longer trip abroad to Mongolia a year ago. Nevertheless, there are also familiar faces on board, such as the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro, who has been Undersecretary in the Dicastery for Culture and Education for a year.

More support

Unlike usual, Francis is receiving more personal support for the current trip. His two private secretaries Fabio Salerno and Daniel Pellizzon are accompanying him for the first time. The priests are in their 40s, significantly younger than most heads of the Curia.

In contrast to his predecessors, Francis changes his personal assistants every few years, probably to prevent a member of his staff from gaining too much influence, such as Georg Gänswein with Benedict XVI or Stanislaw Dziwisz with John Paul II.

Vatican diplomat Salerno, who comes from Calabria in southern Italy, has been working alongside the Pope since 2020. The Argentinian Pellizzon has only been working as a private secretary for a year. Previously, he worked in a parish in the district of Buenos Aires where Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope since March 2013, grew up.

Farewell to a familiar face

A particularly well-known papal companion recently came to an end: Sandro Mariotti, the tall valet to the head of the church, who pushed the wheelchair, handed out rosaries and helped Francis to stand up, took up another post in the Vatican after twelve years. His place as valet de chambre has been taken by Daniele Cherubini, who previously worked at the Vatican Health Fund.

He accompanies the Pope as well as a doctor and a nurse. Despite the long journey in an unfamiliar climate, with major time differences and old age, everything remains the same for the medical staff. According to the Vatican, no additional precautionary measures have been taken. Let's hope that no grey haze settles over the currently good condition of the 87-year-old pontiff.