Almost half the population turned out for Pope Francis’ Mass in the most Catholic country outside Vatican City
Almost half the population of East Timor, the most Catholic nation outside Vatican City, attended a Mass presided over by Pope Francis on Tuesday on the third leg of his Asia trip.
An estimated 600,000 people packed the seaside park of Tasitolu near the capital, Dili, the Vatican told reporters, citing local authorities.
Some 98% of the Southeast Asian country of 1.3 million people is Catholic, and the church is seen as having played a critical role in its fight for independence from Indonesia. But the Vatican has also admitted it concealed sexual abuse by members of the clergy in East Timor, including key figures in the independence movement.
Francis, 87, is the first pope to visit East Timor since it became an independent state in 2002. It is the only Catholic-majority nation on his ambitious 12-day Asia trip, which is also taking him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.
A sea of yellow and white umbrellas, the colors of the Holy See, covered the park on Tuesday as the crowd waited for Francis to arrive in the scorching afternoon sun. Firefighters occasionally sprayed water on the crowd, some of whom had been waiting since the early hours of the morning, to alleviate them from the heat.
Francis arrived shortly after 4 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) to cheers of “Viva Papa Francisco!”
The Mass was held at the same site where St. John Paul II, the last pope to visit East Timor, celebrated a historic liturgy in 1989. The park, which was once known as a place where Indonesian troops disposed of bodies during their violent 24-year occupation, has a large statue of John Paul honoring that visit.
Earlier Tuesday, Francis visited children with disabilities and met with bishops, priests, deacons and others at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili, where he gave a speech.
He arrived in the country on Monday to an enthusiastic welcome, with people jamming his motorcade route into town from the airport.
