VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Francis was a young Jesuit, he wanted to follow in the great Jesuit tradition and become a missionary in Asia. Health problems kept him home, but he is finally getting his chance, travelling to Asia as the world’s most visible and popular Catholic missionary.

During his visit to South Korea this week, he’ll bring a message of peace and reconciliation to the divided Korean peninsula and a call for young Catholics to take up the missionary charge themselves, spreading the faith on a continent where the Catholic Church is small but growing. Asia’s Christians have endured dramatic persecutions over history that echo attacks against Christians today in parts of the Middle East and Africa.