Nails 600,000 people attended Pope Francis’ mass in Dili, the capital of East Timor, on Tuesday in stifling heat. one of the highlights of his marathon tour in Asia-Pacific.
The mass, celebrated on a coastal esplanade, represents a significant physical challenge for the 87-year-old pontiff, who will be present during almost three hours and will give a ride in the popemobile through the crowdwith temperatures above 30º. The Argentine pontiff was greeted like a rock star on Monday, with tens of thousands of devotees gathering in the streets of the capital Dili, shouting and waving flags.
In total, Some 600,000 people are gathered on the esplanade and its surroundings.the equivalent of almost half of the country’s populationthe Vatican said in a statement, citing an estimate by local authorities.
“It’s like we have a new impetus for our lives, for the people of East Timor, for peace,” Natercia do Menino Jesus Soares, 33, told AFP, wearing a cap, a T-shirt and a scarf bearing the image of the Pope.
East Timor, the second most Catholic country in the world
This small country with a 98% of the population is Catholic is the third stop of the pontiff on his long 12-day tour that will end in Singapore after visiting Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. On his first day in East Timor he addressed the authorities to celebrating the country’s period of “peace and freedom” since its independence in 2002, but urged them to prevent abuse of young people that has caused paedophilia scandals in the local Church.
The main event of this visit is the Mass at Tasitolu Wetlandsin the capital, which can be one of the most crowded of his 13 years of papacyTens of thousands of people arrived at dawn, carrying yellow and white Vatican umbrellas to protect themselves from the scorching sun, to attend the celebrations that began at 4:30 p.m. (07:30 GMT).
“I am grateful to be able to participate in this holy mass (…) I don’t know if I would still be able to come if the Pope had come to visit a few years later,” said Felicidade do Rosario, a 49-year-old housewife.
Some 300,000 people have officially registered to attend the ceremony. In 2023, around a million people gathered in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for the Pope’s visit. The record of his papacy was in the capital of Philippines, Manila, in 2015, where it is estimated that the Argentine Jesuit gathered six million people. In a speech at the Dili cathedral, Francis He asked believers to spread “the perfume of the Gospel” against alcoholism, violence and lack of respect for women. The rest of the pope’s agenda for Tuesday includes meetings with Jesuits and with children with disabilities.
“It is a source of pride for us. It is a blessing from God for us, for the people of this land,” said Atanasio Sarmento de Sousa, a member of the organizing committee for Francis’ visit.
$12 million in renovation expenses
Thousands of people already packed the streets on Tuesday along which the papal entourage passed on its way to the first meeting on Tuesday. This is the second time that a pope has visited this small country after John Paul II. The history of Southeast Asia’s youngest nation was marked by centuries of Portuguese colonization, almost 25 years of Indonesian occupation (December 1975-October 1999) and a UN-backed independence referendum.
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The country formally became independent in 2002.emerging from a brutal Indonesian occupation that left more than 200,000 dead. The fledgling democracy is also one of the world’s nations that, however, is spent 12 million dollars to renew its capital before the Pope’s visitone of them intended for the altar where the Pope will sit. This cost has provoked some criticism in East Timor, where activist groups also denounced that Some houses collapsed in the area where the mass was to be held. The government denied that they were built illegally. The authorities also They evicted street vendors and homeless people from the areas where Francisco was supposed to pass through. “They came to confiscate the products we sell and immediately used violence against us,” explained Januario Soares, who was selling second-hand clothes on the street.
Source: Ambito
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