Pope Francis’ Mass in one of world’s most Catholic nations gathers almost half its population

Dili, East Timor (CNN) — Pope Francis received a rapturous welcome from the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, where almost half the population turned out for an open-air Mass on Tuesday.

The 87-year-old leader’s visit marks the penultimate stop of a marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific. Local authorities estimate that a crowd of 600,000 gathered for the pope’s Mass, the Vatican told reporters.

By early Tuesday morning, streets in the capital Dili were packed with cheering crowds, from elderly worshippers to babies in strollers, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pope.

Photos showed a sea of people carrying yellow and white umbrellas, the colors of the Vatican, as they tried to shield themselves from the sun, and at one point a man was seen hosing down the crowd with water to cool them down.

Some attendees had been waiting in the seaside park where the mass took place since 4 a.m. - more than 12 hours before the event began.

Estefania Clotaria-Monterio Gutierrez Ornai, 25, was among them, keen to secure a place in the front row.

“I hope that through his visit here, he can show us to be more respectful to each other and encourage us that, one day, one of us could become the pope like him!” she told CNN.

On arriving at the park to shouts of “Viva Papa Francesco,” people with physical disabilities lined up to meet the pontiff, and a group performed a traditional, cultural dance for him. During the Mass prayers were also said in local dialects.

At the conclusion of the Mass, the pope addressed the crowd in Spanish with a priest translating into Timorese.

Francis drew laughs and cheers when he referenced crocodiles: there are large numbers of crocodiles in the sea around East Timor, and traditional belief holds that reptiles represent people’s ancestors.

“Be careful,” the pope told them. “I was told that crocodiles are coming to some beaches. Crocodiles that come swimming and have a stronger bite than we can handle. Be attentive to those crocodiles that want to change your culture, your history. And stay away from those crocodiles because they bite, and they bite a lot.”

During his homily, he also praised East Timor for the large number of children in the country, which he said was a “great gift.”

It is not the first time Francis has addressed birthrates in this trip: in Indonesia he praised the country for having large families and contrasted that with low birthrates in other parts of the world.

After the Mass concluded, the Timorese singer, Maria Vitória da Costa Borges – known as “Marvi” – performed on stage. A onetime winner of Portugal’s “The Voice,” she performed alongside another Timorese singer, known as Bepi.

Francis addresses sexual abuse

But the issue of clerical sexual abuse is also hanging over this leg of the pope’s visit to the region as revelations of mistreatment concerning high profile East Timor clergy have emerged in recent years.

During his speech to the country’s political authorities, the pope called on them to tackle “every kind of abuse” to “guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people.”

East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, is one of the world’s youngest countries and has deep ties to the Catholic Church, which was influential in its tumultuous and bloody fight for independence from Indonesia.

The country of just 1.3 million people is the second-most Catholic country in the world, with 97% of the population identifying as Catholic, the highest share outside of the Vatican.

The government of East Timor allocated $12 million for Francis’ first visit to the deeply devout country, an amount which has been criticized as an exorbitant burden given it remains a small economy and one of Asia’s poorest nations.

The pontiff’s visit also puts fresh scrutiny on the scourge of sexual abuse in the church and on whether Francis will directly address the issue while he’s in East Timor, as he has done in other countries.

Two years ago, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly disciplined East Timor bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Ximenes Belo, after he was accused of sexually abusing boys decades before.

In past trips abroad, Francis has met with victims of abuse. Though not on the official program of his visit, some analysts have said if Pope Francis addresses the abuse while in East Timor, it would send a strong message to survivors and those who have not come forward, whether in the country or around the region.

A regional bastion of Catholicism

Pope Francis’ 12-day visit to Asia includes Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore – underscoring a significant shift inside the Catholic Church as it pivots to Asia.

He is the second pope to visit East Timor, after Pope John Paul II in 1989, but it’s the first papal visit for the country since it gained independence in 2002. The visit comes less than a week after the country marked the 25th anniversary of its vote to secede from Indonesia.

Located between northwestern Australia and Indonesia, the country occupies half of the island of Timor and was used by the Portuguese since the 17th century as a trading post for sandalwood.

Four hundred years of ensuing Portuguese colonial rule led to the widespread spread of Catholicism in East Timor and other cultural differences from Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Today, East Timor’s economy is heavily reliant on its oil and gas reserves, and still contends with high levels of poverty following decades of conflict.

Christina Kheng, a theologian who teaches at the East Asian Pastoral Institute, told CNN that the young nation “is still struggling with post-war unity and nation building.”

Like other countries in the region, East Timor is in the middle of the United States and China’s push for influence in Asia, with US ally Australia at the forefront in providing assistance.

Bishop Belo and sex abuse allegations

A leading pro-democracy figure during the Indonesian occupation was Bishop Belo, the former head of the Catholic Church in East Timor, who won the Nobel Peace Prize alongside President Jose Ramos-Horta in 1996 for their work in bringing a peaceful end to the conflict.

In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that it had sanctioned Belo two years prior, following allegations from two men who said the bishop raped them when they were teenagers and gave them money to buy their silence.

The Vatican said that Belo, who is understood to be based in Portugal, had been placed under travel restrictions, “prohibition of voluntary contact with minors, of interviews and contacts with Timor Leste.”

While the allegations against Belo date back to the 1980, the Vatican said it first became involved in the case in 2019.

CNN has asked the Vatican if the case of Bishop Belo will be addressed during the pope’s trip.

Dutch newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer broke the news and said its investigation found that other boys were also allegedly victims of Belo’s abuse dating back to the 1980s.

Belo has never been officially charged in East Timor and has never spoken publicly about the accusations.

Many abuse victims in East Timor have been reluctant to come forward due to the church’s deep connection to the independence struggle, and because of the government’s treatment of the few who have been convicted.

Since Pope Francis became the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in 2013, multiple reports detailing decades of sexual abuse, systemic failures and cover-ups across multiple countries have been released.

While he was criticized for some of his actions – such as when he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a sex scandal in 2018, a decision he later described as a “grave error” – he has since taken a firm stance on the issues and introduced some reforms, including provisions for holding lay leaders of Vatican-approved associations accountable for cover-ups of sexual abuse.

The church and East Timor’s independence struggle

Amid civil war, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in 1976 and declared the country’s 27th province following Portugal’s democratization and its decision to shed its colonies the year before.

Between 1975 and 1999, more than 200,000 people – about a quarter of the population – were killed in fighting and massacres or died as a result of famine as Indonesia’s occupying forces tried to brutally assert control.

Indonesia was condemned by the international community for its crackdown, including in 1991 when its troops massacred young independence supporters at the Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor’s capital Dili. The capture and jailing of Timorese guerilla leader and now Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao the following year further fanned a resurgence in opposition to Indonesian rule.

It was Indonesian President Suharto’s fall from power in 1998 and an ensuing shift in policy toward East Timor that paved the way for a UN-sponsored referendum on East Timor’s independence – which passed with more than 78.5% support in 1999.

Soon after the vote, pro-Jakarta militias backed by the Indonesian military went on a killing and looting rampage in the capital, attacking churches, and targeting priests and those seeking refuge as they hunted down independence supporters.

Much of East Timor’s infrastructure was destroyed in the violence and about 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes. An Australian-led international peacekeeping mission ultimately intervened and East Timor officially won independence in 2002.

During Indonesian occupation, the Catholic Church played a huge role in defending people from attacks and pushing for a vote on independence – its church workers and the clergy paying a bloody price as a result.

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