Pope's mass in Timor-Leste draws 600,000 worshippers

Some 600,000 people have gathered in a field outside Timor-Leste’s capital Dili for one of the biggest masses of Pope Francis’s papacy.

The open-air congregation represents nearly half the population of the small Southeast Asian country - one of the most Roman Catholic places on Earth and the only Catholic-majority nation the pontiff is visiting on his Asia-Pacific tour.

In anticipation of the crowds, at least one local telecom company had informed customers that their signal at the venue would be affected.

Tuesday's mass is being held on disputed ground in Tasitolu, where authorities recently demolished homes and evicted nearly 90 people.

"They even demolished our belongings inside the house,” Zerita Correia previously told BBC News. “Now we have to rent nearby because my children are still in school in this area.”

The move attracted strong criticism from local residents, hundreds of whom had moved there over the past decade from rural parts of the country. Many came looking for work in the capital and built basic homes in the area.

The government says they are squatting and have no right to live on the land. A government minister told the BBC previously that residents had been made aware of plans to clear the area in September 2023.

It is one of several controversies that has darkened the pontiff’s visit – another being the case of a prominent East Timorese bishop, hailed as an independence hero, who was accused of sexually abusing young boys in the country during the 1980s and 90s.

A Vatican spokesman earlier said the Church had been aware of the case against Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in 2019 and had imposed disciplinary measures in 2020, including restrictions on Bishop Belo’s movements and a ban on voluntary contact with minors.

Many had wondered, however, whether the Pope would address the scandal during his time in Timor-Leste.

While not mentioning that or any other case specifically, Pope Francis used his speech on Monday to call on young people to be protected from abuse, telling officials: "Let us not forget the many children and adolescents whose dignity has been violated."

He then called on people to do "everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people".

In an open letter, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in Oceania said there had "still not been redress for the victims" and called on Pope Francis to use Church money to pay compensation to them. The Pope has not met with any of the victims so far.

The pontiff also used his speech to praise Timor-Leste - formerly known as East Timor - for its new era of "peace and freedom", more than two decades after it achieved independence from neighbouring Indonesia.

"We give thanks to the Lord, since you never lost hope while going through such a dramatic period of your history, and after dark and difficult days, a dawn of peace and freedom has finally dawned," he said.

Pope Francis, who landed in Dili on Monday afternoon, will have spent less than 48 hours in Timor-Leste when he flies to Singapore on Wednesday for the last leg of his 12-day tour.