Pope Francis came to East Timor, a predominantly Catholic country in Southeast Asia, for a three-day visit.
Francis landed in Dili, the capital of Timor, on Monday afternoon. He travelled from Papua New Guinea, where he delivered medical supplies to the small town on the edge of the vast jungle on Sunday. The Pontiff was welcomed at the airport by President Manuel Ramos-Horta and two young women dressed in traditional attire.
He is the second pope to visit it after John Paul II who travelled there in 1989. The country is probably the most Catholic in the world: the Vatican says about 96 per cent of Timorese are adherents of the faith.
Organisers are preparing for some 750,000 people to attend Mass with Francis on Tuesday at the Tasitolu, where Indonesian troops are known to have buried slain Timorese independence fighters.
Although Timorese remain overwhelmingly Catholic, the church in the country has recently been plagued by abuse scandals. In 2022, the Vatican confirmed it had sanctioned Timorese bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo over allegations of sexual abuse of boys in Timor in the 1990s. He now lives in Portugal.
A leading rights group urged Francis to speak openly about sexual abuse during his visit, Anne Barrett Doyle of the abuse tracking group BishopAccountability.org said.
The pope must denounce the two men by name. His words could have an enormous positive impact.
Francis will visit East Timor until Wednesday as part of a tour that also included a stop in Indonesia. He will then travel to Singapore before returning to Rome on 13 September.
