Pope Francis arrives in East Timor, crowd may reach 750,000

DILI — Pope Francis arrived on Monday (Sept 9) in East Timor, a predominantly Catholic nation in Southeast Asia, for a three-day visit that will include an open-air celebration of Mass the Vatican says may include more than half the population of 1.3 million.

The 87-year-old pontiff is on an ambitious 12-day visit to four countries across Southeast Asia and Oceania, his longest overseas journey yet.

He came to East Timor from Papua New Guinea, where on Sunday he delivered medical supplies to a small town located at the edge of a vast jungle, in one of the most remote areas of the world.

Francis landed in Dili, the Timorese capital, on Monday afternoon. He was met at the airport by President Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta and two young women dressed in traditional outfits, who offered him flowers and a tais, a woven ceremonial scarf, which the pontiff briefly put on.

Tens of thousands of people filled entire city blocks around the airport as Francis left in a white, open-top vehicle. Many were using umbrellas decorated in the white and yellow colours of the Vatican flag to protect themselves from direct sun in the 31 degrees Celsius heat.

East Timor, a half-island nation north of Australia, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, after a brutal, decades-long occupation. 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 an historic boost.

The country is likely the most Catholic in the world, with the Vatican saying some 96 per cent of Timorese are adherents to the faith.

Organisers are preparing for some 750,000 people to attend a Mass with Francis on Tuesday at the Tasitolu, a wide, dusty coastal area where Indonesian forces were known to