East Timorese flock to seaside park for Pope Francis' Mass at site of John Paul II's historic visit

DILI, East Timor — Tens of thousands of East Timorese streamed Tuesday toward a seaside park for Pope Francis’ big Mass, held on the same field where St. John Paul II celebrated an historic liturgy during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia.

The Tacitolu park is said to have been a site where Indonesian troops disposed of bodies killed during their rule. 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.

John Paul’s visit helped draw attention to the plight of the Timorese people and shine a spotlight on the oppressiveness of Indonesia’s rule, during which as many as 200,000 people were killed over a quarter-century.

Francis celebrates a Mass at the same site Tuesday, following in John Paul's footsteps to cheer the Southeast Asian nation on two decades after it finally became an independent state 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.

Unemployment is high, job opportunities in the formal sector are generally limited and most people are subsistence farmers with no steady income.

But the Timroese 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, thronging the motorcade route as Francis arrived on Monday and pouring into the Tacitolu site for his Tuesday afternoon Mass.

“Yes this is a very grateful experience for us Timorese," said Ildefonso da Cruz Barreto, who was in the crowd greeting Francis outside the presidential palace. "During our fight for independence, the Catholic Church was a big part of the process.”

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 predicted as many as 750,000.

They lined up before dawn by the tens of thousands to enter the Tacitolu park, on the coast about 8 kilometers (nearly 5 miles) 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.

“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 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 plain-clothed police clashed with some 20 young men who shouted “Viva a independência” and “Viva el Papa!”

According to Associated Press reporting at the time, the men unfurled a banner in front of the altar and hurled chairs at the policemen. One banner read “Fretilin Welcomes You,” a reference to the independence movement that fought Indonesian rule since East Timor was annexed in 1976 after Portugal dismantled its centuries-old colonial empire.

Four women were reported hospitalized with injuries suffered after being crushed in the surging crowd. The pope wasn't harmed.

Amnesty International later expressed concern that some 40 people had been detained and tortured, though Indonesian authorities at the time denied any arrests or torture.

“The Mass was run very neat and orderly with very tight security,” De Jesus recalled more than three decades later. “But it was crushed by a brief riot at the end of the event.”

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 been 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.

Francis has cheered East Timor for the progress it has achieved since independence and is seeking to encourage the country to strengthen its public institutions and look out for the poorest and most vulnerable.

Francis opened his day Tuesday visiting a home for disabled children run by a congregation of religious sisters. Young girls, including one without arms, presented Francis with a traditional woven shawl known as a tais as he arrived at the Irmas Alma school.

As he stroked the hand of a young boy named Silvano in a stroller, Francis said taking care of children with such health needs “teaches us to care.”

“As he allows himself to be cared for, we must learn to be cared for by God, who loves us,” Francis said.

Francis then met with clergy and religious sisters at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where he praised the women of the church and said their dignity must always be respected.

“Women are the most important thing in the church, because they take care of the most needy,” he said. “They heal them. They accompany them.”

He also heard the story of Florentino de Jesus Martins, an 89-year-old layman who has worked as a catechist, teaching the faith for the archdiocese of Dili, but had to retire because of his Parkinson's disease.

Greeting him, Francis marveled at his dedication, saying he didn't let his ailment paralyze his zeal for spreading the faith. “It seems he's competing with St. Paul the Apostle,” he said.

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AP researcher Randy Herschaft contributed from New York.

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