Timor-Leste turns out in force for Mass with Pope Francis
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DILI - An estimated 600,000 people in Timor-Leste, just under half its population, turned out in the baking heat on Sept 10 for a Mass with Pope Francis at a coastal park synonymous with the country’s long struggle for independence from Indonesia.
Filling a wide, dusty area where Indonesian forces were known to have buried slain Timorese independence fighters, people arrived as early as 1am and sat on the ground, many braving the sun for hours in temperatures as high as 32 deg C.
Many people sheltered under umbrellas decorated in the white and yellow colours of the Vatican flag, while others sang local melodies, carried signs asking for blessings and shouted in joy as Pope Francis arrived.
Reverend Pedro Amaral, one of hundreds of priests celebrating the Mass, said he came with 800 of his parishioners from Zumalai, a village about 140km away.
“I am so happy because we never thought we would see the Pope,” said the priest.
Schoolteacher Jamie Belo, 60, said he left home 12 hours before the Mass to secure a spot to see the Pope.
Former Portuguese colony Timor-Leste is a half-island nation of 1.3 million people north of Australia and one of only two predominantly Catholic counties in Asia.
The Vatican estimated 600,000 had gathered for the early part of the Sept 10 mass, in one of the largest turnouts as a proportion of a country’s population for a Mass during a papal visit.
Many in the crowd on the outskirts of Dili, the capital, appeared young, with mothers and fathers holding babies or keeping children around their legs.
‘Teeming with life’
Timor-Leste lost at least 102,800 people in the 1975-99 conflict with Indonesia, according to the United Nations. It now has a median age of 20, according to official estimates.
“How wonderful that here in Timor-Leste there are so many children!” Pope Francis said during his homily for the mass, looking out over the crowd.
“Indeed, you are a young country, and we can see every corner of your land teeming with life.”
The Pope’s stop in Timor-Leste is part of an ambitious 12-day, four-country tour
It is likely the most Catholic country in the world
Pope Francis is the first Pope to visit Timor-Leste in 35 years, following Pope John Paul II, whose appearance gave the country’s independence movement an historic boost.
Like Pope Francis, Pope John Paul also celebrated mass at the Tasitolu, now a protected area and “Peace Park” that overlooks the waters of the island’s northern coast.
Pope John Paul’s Mass, held during the occupation, ended with a small chair-throwing melee between anti-government demonstrators and police officers. The late Pope was unharmed.
Pope Francis’ visit, held during the 25th anniversary of the vote for independence, at times resembled something more like an enormous party.
Crowds gathered for kilometres in the streets around Dili throughout Sept 10 to follow the Pope’s events, which also included a meeting with Catholic bishops at the cathedral and a visit with disabled children at a local Catholic school.
The 87-year-old pontiff, using a wheelchair due to knee and back pain, was often rolled near the rope lines outside his events.
People gathered around him, touched his hands, kissed his silver papal ring, or offered a tais, a traditional woven scarf, for him to wear. Dancers in feathered headdresses also played small drums.
The mass, the largest papal event since Pope Francis’ visit to Portugal in 2023 for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day festival, featured readings in Portuguese, Tetum, and five other local languages.
Pope Francis is visiting Timor-Leste until Sept 11 as part of a tour that also included stops in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. He travels next to Singapore
