Pope Francis arrived in East Timor on Monday on the third stop of his visit to south-east Asia and Oceania. Around half of the island’s 1.3 million people – 97 per cent of whom are Catholic – attended an outdoor Mass he celebrated outside the capital Dili.
The crowd sheltered from the sun under yellow and white umbrellas waiting for the Mass at the Taci Tolu protected coastal area about five miles from the city, the same site where John Paul II celebrated Mass when his visited in 1989 during the East Timorese independence struggle.
Most of the hundreds of thousands present had walked there from across the island, while tens of thousands of others who could not get into the site lined the roads there, some dancing in traditional costumes.
At the end of the Mass, the Archbishop of Dili Cardinal Virgilio da Silva thanked Pope Francis for his visit which, he said, had played an important role in supporting the development of East Timor and demonstrated “the Church's commitment to serving the poor”.
Pope Francis presented the cardinal with a chalice as a memorial of his visit.
On arrival on the airport tarmac in Dili on Monday, the Pope was presented with a traditional scarf known as a tais and was greeted by President Jose Ramos-Horta, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his role in bringing peace to East Timor after its fight for independence from Indonesia.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, another hero of the liberation struggle, had swept the streets with locals to help clean up the city before the Pope’s arrival.
Pope Francis promptly issued a broad condemnation of child sexual abuse – in which Timorese clergy have been implicated, including Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, once a national hero and a Nobel laureate alongside Ramos-Horta, whom the Vatican secretly punished over multiple abuse charges and who now lives overseas.
Without specifying Belo’s case, Pope Francis said Catholics “are all called to do everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people".
Later that day he visited a school for children with disabilities, who welcomed him dressed in traditional clothes and accompanied by a choir of religious sisters. He the met East Timor’s bishops, priests, religious and catechists in Dili’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
The Pope focused on East Timor’s recovery from the violence of the independence struggle during his visit on 9-11 September, hailing its new era of “peace and freedom”.
He told political leaders including President Ramos-Horta at a meeting in the presidential palace that “you have kept your hope firm, even in the midst of suffering” and praised their “diligent commitment” to reconciliation with Indonesia.
Ramos-Horta thanked Francis for visiting East Timor bringing a “message of peace, reconciliation, human fraternity, and hope, which is necessary in an increasingly troubled world”. He reported that the government was fighting against poverty, hunger and food insecurity, child malnutrition, violence, and various forms of exclusion and social marginalisation.
On Sunday in Papua New Guinea, the Pope had celebrated a Mass with more than 35,000 people in the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby.
Some had arrived at 2am after walking from remote parts of the country for several days. Mudiya Kepanga, chief of the Huli tribe in Papua New Guinea’s Hela Province, said he had come “to meet Holy Pope Francis to get his blessing”.
Pope Francis attended a meeting with around 10,000 young Papuans, encouraging them to practice “the language of love and service”. He said that “you in Papua, who speak more than 800 languages, share a common language, that of love and service”. He warned against the practice of witchcraft which, he said, locks people up “in lies and fear”.
Bishop John Bosco Auram of Kimbe officially welcomed the Pope to the meeting. He said Papua New Guinea’s youth faced difficulties living out Christian values within their families and society, limited opportunities for growth and development, and frustrations arising from the conduct of government and even the Church.
The Pope called on young Catholics “to overcome divisions – personal, family and tribal – to drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviours such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters, even in this country.”
Francis later travelled to the coastal city of Vanimo in the north-west of the country, described as a visit to “the periphery of the peripheries”, conveying his gratitude for the work of missionaries in the area. He also highlighted the country’s fragile ecosystem and its rich natural resources at risk of exploitation and the threat posed by climate change.
“One cannot help but be amazed by the colours, sounds and scents, as well as the grandiose spectacle of nature bursting forth with life, all evoking the image of Eden,” the Pope said.
During the first stop of his visit last week in Indonesia – where Catholics make up three per cent of the 275 million population – the Pope focused on interfaith dialogue.
Although Muslim leaders were divided on a government appeal to not broadcast the Islamic call to prayer on television on 5 September, to avoid disrupting the live coverage of the papal Mass in Jakarta, the Pope’s reception was warm. Around 80,000 people attended the Mass at the Bung Karno Stadium.
The Archbishop of Jakarta Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo emphasised the importance of the Pope’s visit to the Istiqlal Mosque and the nearby Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, linked by an underpass known as the “Tunnel of Friendship” symbolising interfaith harmony.
Pope Francis joined the mosque’s Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar to sign a joint statement condemning religious-based violence.
Indigenous Christians in Indonesia’s Papua Province prayed a Way of the Cross on 4 September to draw the Pope’s attention to the government’s military operations in their province.
Fr John Bunay from the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of Diocese of Jayapura reported that at the stop where Jesus met his mother, they reflected on the Papuan mothers who were forced to take refuge in the forests because of the conflict.
“Hopefully the Pope will see our problem. If not, indigenous Papuans will be reduced to a minority and eventually become extinct,” Bunay said.
Pope Francis was due to arrive in Singapore on Wednesday for the final stop of his journey.
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