2014-12-29 Vatican Radio - According to the Holy See’s spokesman, Pope Francis has shown in 2014 the importance of Asia for the Church. “This year the Pope travelled to South Korea and in a few weeks he will be travelling to Sri Lanka and the Philippines,” Fr. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio in an interview reviewing the year that is ending. The Jesuit priest that the Holy Father’s predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI was unable to visit Asia. “These great visits of Pope Francis to Asia,” he said, “speak of the Church’s renewed attention toward this predominant portion of humanity of today and tomorrow.” He noted that with its impressive demographics, human presence, its sheer size and dynamics, Asia is for the Church an endless territory for evangelization and the proclamation of the Gospel in its vastly varied and often very difficult cultural, social and political situations. “Hence Asia is one of the greatest frontiers of the Church of our times, and Pope Francis is showing it with his enthusiastic travels,” Fr. Lombardi added.