Timor-Leste, an island nation north of Australia, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, after a brutal, decades-long occupation.
Pope Francis is the second pope to visit, following John Paul II, who came in 1989 in a trip that gave the country’s independence movement a historic boost.
The country is likely the most Catholic in the world, with the Vatican saying about 96 per cent of Timorese are adherents to the faith.
Organisers are preparing for about 750,000 people to attend a Mass with Pope Francis on Tuesday at the Tasitolu, a wide, dusty coastal area where Indonesian forces were known to bury killed Timorese independence fighters.
Since independence, the country has struggled with rebuilding its infrastructure and economy.
In 2014, the World Bank estimated that about 42 per cent of Timorese live in poverty and that about 47 per cent of children are stunted because of malnutrition.
Although Timorese have remained overwhelmingly Catholic, the church in the country has been affected recently by abuse scandals.
In 2022, the Vatican confirmed it had sanctioned Timorese Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo following allegations he sexually abused boys in Timor in the 1990s.
Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel peace prize with Ramos-Horta for their independence efforts, lives in Portugal.
A year earlier, a defrocked American priest, Richard Daschbach, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing girls under his care in Timor.
A leading abuse survivor advocacy group called on Pope Francis to speak openly about the cases during his visit.
“The pope must denounce the two men by name,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, of the abuse tracking group BishopAccountability.org.
“His words could have an enormous positive impact.”
The pope’s first address in the country will come later on Monday, when Pope Francis is due to address the political authorities.
Pope Francis is visiting Timor-Leste until Wednesday as part of a tour that also included a stop in Indonesia.
He travels next to Singapore before returning to Rome on Sep 13.
Source: CNA
