Nearly half of East Timor turns up for Pope Francis visit

Pope Francis delighted East Timor worshippers by holding mass during his 12-day foreign trip to Southeast Asia and Oceania

Around 600,000 people tried to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis in the Southeast Asian nation of East Timor - equivalent to nearly half the country's population.

Worshippers queued up at dawn to enter Tasitolu Park on Tuesday, more than 12 hours before the religious mass was due to begin.

A sea of yellow and white umbrellas were visible as people tried to keep cool ahead of the Pope's arrival.

He told worshippers "I wish for you peace, that you keep having many children" during the three hour event, which he concluded by looping around the field in his open-topped popemobile.

The crowd is believed to represent the biggest turnout for a papal event ever, in terms of the proportion of the population.

Pope Francis is visiting East Timor as part of an 12-day tour, where he will also be travelling to Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.

It is the longest overseas journey he has taken since becoming Pope in 2013.

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is very religious, with 97% of the population thought to be Catholic, making it the most Catholic country in the world outside of the Vatican

The mass was held in the same park where St John Paul II prayed in 1989 during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia, who ruled over the country for more than two decades until 2002.

John Paul's visit is credited with helping draw attention to the plight of the Timorese people, with up to 200,000 believed to have been killed during the occupation.

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Pope Francis is the first Pope to visit them as an independent nation.

During his visit, Francis congratulated East Timor for the progress it has achieved, and called on people to do "everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people".

The reference to abuse recalls the scandal of Timorese Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who was sanctioned in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys.

Belo was prohibited from having voluntary contact with minors and with East Timor itself.

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