Francis’ Mass draws 600,000 people, nearly half the population

East Timorese crowd Tacitolu park for Pope Francis’ Mass in Dili, yesterday

An estimated 600,000 people — a figure nearing half of East Timor’s population —- packed a seaside park yesterday for Pope Francis’ final Mass, held on the same field where St. John Paul II prayed during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia.

While other papal Masses have drawn millions of people in more populous countries and there were certainly other nationalities attending the Mass, the crowd in small East Timor was believed to represent the biggest turnout for a papal event ever, in terms of the proportion of the population.

The Tasitolu park was a sea of yellow and white umbrellas — the colors of the Holy See flag — as Timorese shielded themselves from the afternoon sun awaiting Francis’ arrival for the afternoon service. They got occasional spritzes of relief from water trucks that plied the field with hoses.

“We are very happy that the pope came to Timor because it gives a blessing to our land and our people,” said Dirce Maria Teresa Freitas, 44, who arrived at the field at 9 a.m. from Baucau, more than seven hours early.

Tasitolu is said to have been a site where Indonesian troops disposed of bodies killed during their 24-year rule of East Timor. Now it is known as the “Park of Peace” and features a larger-than-life-sized statue of John Paul to commemorate his 1989 visit, when the Polish pope shamed Indonesia for its human rights abuses and encouraged the overwhelmingly Catholic Timorese faithful.

Francis was following in John Paul’s footsteps to cheer on the nation two decades after it became independent in 2002. East Timor, known also as Timor-Leste, remains one of the poorest countries, with some 42% of its 1.3 million people living below the poverty line, according to the U.N. Development Program.

But the Timorese are deeply faithful — the territory has been overwhelmingly Catholic ever since Portuguese explorers first arrived in the early 1500s and some 97% of the population today is Catholic. They have turned out in droves to welcome the first pope to visit them as an independent nation.

Government authorities said some 300,000 people had registered through their dioceses to attend the Mass, but President Jose Ramos-Horta said he expected 700,000 and the Vatican had predicted as many as 750,000.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni cited crowd estimates by local organizers that 600,000 people were attending in the Tasitolu park and surrounding areas.

They lined up before dawn to enter the park, on the coast about 8 kilometers from downtown Dili. With hours to go until the service, the roads leading to it were jammed by cars, trucks and buses packed with people; others walked down the middle of the street, ignoring the sidewalks. Temperatures reached 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit), and felt even hotter with humidity over 50%.

“For us, the pope is a reflection of the Lord Jesus, as a shepherd who wants to see his sheep, so we come to him with all our hearts as our worship,” said Alfonso de Jesus, who also came from Baucau, the country’s second-largest city after Dili, about 128 kilometers east of the capital.

De Jesus, 56, was among the estimated 100,000 people who attended John Paul’s 1989 Mass, which made headlines around the world because of a riot that broke out just as it was ending. John Paul looked on as baton-wielding Indonesian plainclothes police clashed with some 20 young men who shouted “Viva a independência” and “Viva o Papa!”

Many of the reports at the time quoted Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in trying to draw attention to the plight of the Timorese people. Belo would go onto win the Nobel Peace Prize with Ramos-Horta for their efforts to peacefully resolve the Timorese conflict.

But Belo has since had his reputation discredited, at least outside of East Timor, after the Vatican revealed in 2022 that he had been sanctioned for sexually abusing young boys. Now living in Portugal and blocked by the Vatican from having contact with East Timor, Belo’s historic role has been seemingly erased from any official mention during Francis’ visit, even while ordinary Timorese still revere him as a hero.

Sister Maria Josefa, a nun from Cape Verde who has lived in Dili for five years, said Francis was right to speak out generally about “abuse” when he arrived in Dili on Monday, saying his were words of compassion, even if he didn’t mention Belo by name. HELENA ALVES, TASITOLU, MDT/AP