Pope Francis arrives in Timor-Leste, more than half of the 1.3 million Timorese are expected to attend mass

DILI – Pope Francis arrived in Timor-Leste, a predominantly Catholic country in Southeast Asia, on September 9 for a three-day visit that will include an outdoor Mass. According to the Vatican, more than half of the country's 1.3 million inhabitants could take part in the visit.

The 87-year-old pope is on an ambitious 12-day visit to four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania, his longest foreign trip to date.

He arrived in Timor-Leste from Papua New Guinea, where on September 8 he delivered medical supplies to a small town on the edge of a vast jungle in one of the most remote areas in the world.

Pope Francis landed in Dili, the capital of Timor, on the afternoon of September 9. He was met at the airport by President José Manuel Ramos-Horta and a group of schoolchildren in traditional dress, who presented him with flowers and a tais, a woven ceremonial shawl.

Timor-Leste, an island nation north of Australia, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 after decades of brutal occupation. Pope Francis is the second pope to visit the country after John Paul II in 1989. His trip gave the country's independence movement a historic boost.

The country is probably the most Catholic in the world. According to the Vatican, around 96 percent of Timorese belong to the faith.

Organizers are preparing for some 750,000 people to attend a Mass with Pope Francis on September 10 at Tasitolu, a sprawling, dusty coastal area where Indonesian forces are known to have buried slain Timorese independence fighters.

Since independence, the country has struggled to rebuild its infrastructure and economy. In 2014, the World Bank estimated that about 42 percent of Timorese people live in poverty and about 47 percent of children suffer from developmental delays due to malnutrition.

Although the vast majority of Timorese have remained Catholic, the country's church has recently been rocked by abuse scandals.

In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that it had imposed sanctions on Timorese Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo after he was accused of sexually abusing boys in Timor-Leste in the 1990s. The bishop, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mr Ramos-Horta in 1996 for their independence efforts, lives in Portugal.

In 2021, dismissed American priest Richard Daschbach was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing girls in his care in Timor-Leste.

A leading abuse victim advocacy group called on Pope Francis to speak openly about the cases during his visit. “The pope needs to denounce the two men by name,” said Anne Barrett Doyle of the abuse tracking group BishopAccountability.org. “His words could have a tremendous positive impact.”

The Pope's first address in the country will take place later on September 9, when Pope Francis will address the political authorities.

Pope Francis will visit Timor-Leste until September 11 as part of a trip that includes a stop in Indonesia. He will then travel to Singapore before returning to Rome on September 13. REUTERS