By Nicole Winfield
Dili: The people of Timor-Leste gave Pope Francis a rousing welcome as he arrived in the country to encourage its recovery from a bloody and traumatic independence battle and celebrate its development after two decades of freedom from Indonesian rule.
Timorese jammed Francis’ motorcade route into town from the airport, waving Vatican and Timorese flags and toting yellow and white umbrellas — the colours of the Holy See — to shade themselves from the scorching midday sun.
Pope Francis waves from the car upon arrival in Dili.Credit: AP
“Viva el Papa!” they shouted as he passed by, at one point slowing down in his open-topped car to bless a baby who was presented to him in the middle of the crowd.
The occasional Timorese guards along the motorcade route were no match for the throngs of people, many donning T-shirts with Francis’ face on them, who slowed the convoy of cars and vans to a crawl. The 87-year-old Francis seemed to relish the greeting, smiling broadly from the car and waving as he passed by billboard after billboard featuring his image and words of welcome.
Francis arrived in Dili from Papua New Guinea to open the third leg of his trip through South-East Asia and Oceania. President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, two of Timor-Leste’s most revered independence heroes, greeted Francis at the airport and were meeting with him privately.
The pope was to address government officials and diplomats later Monday after an official welcome ceremony. His three-day visit will include an open-air celebration of Mass the Vatican says may include more than half the population of 1.3 million.
People wait along a road where Pope Francis was expected to pass on his way from the Dili’s Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport.Credit: AP
The overwhelmingly Catholic Timor-Leste, one of the world’s poorest countries, eagerly awaited Francis’ arrival, which came on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the UN-backed referendum that paved the way for independence from Indonesia.
“Our great hope is that he may come to consolidate the fraternity, the national unity, peace and development for this new country,” said Estevão Tei Fernandes, a university professor.
It was a far different atmosphere than when the last pope visited. St John Paul II came in 1989, when Timor was still an occupied part of Indonesia and fighting for its freedom. As many as 200,000 people were killed during the 24 years of Indonesian rule.
Francis will confront that legacy, and another one more close to home involving Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Timorese bishop who, along with Gusmao and Ramos-Horta is regarded as a hero for his efforts to win independence.
Pope Francis in Dili, East Timor, on Monday.Credit: AP
Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to the conflict.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while trying to get the United Nations to arrange a plebiscite for Timor-Leste, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so they could testify to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
In 2022, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys. The sanctions included limitations on his movements and exercise of ministry and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with Timor Leste itself. The sanctions were reinforced in 2021.
Despite the sanctions, which were confirmed at the time by the Vatican spokesman and reaffirmed last week ahead of Francis’ trip, many people in Timor-Leste have stood by Belo, either dismissing, denying or diminishing the victims’ claims. Some even hoped Belo, who lives in Portugal, would be on hand to welcome Francis.
On Sunday Francis travelled to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea to celebrate the Catholic Church on the peripheries, bringing a tonne of medicine, musical instruments and a message of love for the people who live there.
In his remarks, the pontiff also spoke out against arming the region.
Travelling 1000 kilometres in a C-130 cargo aircraft provided by the Royal Australian Air Force, Francis arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 people in the northwestern corner of PNG’s main island, with no running water and scarce electricity.
Pope Francis arrives at the Holy Trinity Humanistic School in Baro, near Vanimo, Papua New Guinea.Credit: AP
“Christianity reaches into some of the most remote parts of PNG & Australia. We’re honoured & proud to be able to support PNG on this momentous occasion,” John Feakes, Australia’s High Commissioner to PNG, wrote on X.
The pope brought hundreds of kilograms of items to help support the local population, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, including medicines and clothing, as well as toys and musical instruments for school children.
For an Argentine pope who marvelled in 2013 at having been chosen from the “end of the Earth” to lead the church, it was a voyage to another end of the Earth on the longest, farthest trip of Francis’ pontificate.
Francis has previously travelled to the edge of the Arctic (to apologise to the Inuit people for church abuses), the Peruvian Amazon (to draw attention to its plight), and to the plains of Ur, Iraq (to boost Christian-Muslim ties). But even by his standards, Sunday’s trip to remote Vanimo was extraordinary.
People in traditional headdress use their phones as Pope Francis holds a holly mass at Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.Credit: AP
A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered on the field in front of the Vanimo cathedral, singing and dancing when Francis arrived. He promptly put on a feathered headdress that was presented to him.
In remarks from a raised stage, Francis praised the church workers who go out to try to spread the faith. But he encouraged the residents of Vanimo to work on being good to one another at home, urging them to be like an orchestra, so that all members of the community come together harmoniously to overcome rivalries.
Doing so, he said, would help to “drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviours such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters”.
The golf cart used by Pope Francis during his visit to Vanimo, Papua New Guinea inside the Royal Australian Air Force Hercules C 130Js.Credit: AP
It was a reference to tribal violence overland and other disputes that have long characterised the country’s culture, but which has grown more lethal in recent years. Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea to urge an end to the violence, including gender-based abuse, and for a sense of civic responsibility to prevail.
AP
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