- Pope visits Timor-Leste, Catholic-majority nation
- Abuse scandal shadows visit, victims seek justice
- Evictions for papal event spark local outrage
Timor-Leste is the only Catholic-majority country Pope Francis will visit during his 12-day Asia-Pacific journey.
Around 700,000 people, more than half of Timor-Leste’s total population, are expected to attend an open-air mass that the Pope will hold near the capital, Dili, later on Tuesday.
The Pope’s visit is much anticipated, but campaigners are urging him to address a recent abuse crisis that has damaged the Church in Timor-Leste, formerly known as East Timor.
A senior bishop, regarded as an independence hero, has been accused of sexually assaulting young boys in the Southeast Asian country during the 1980s and 1990s.
A Vatican official stated that the church was aware of the case against Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in 2019 and imposed disciplinary penalties in 2020, including limits on Belo’s movements and a prohibition on voluntary contact with children.
In an open letter, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in Oceania stated that there had “still not been redress for the victims” and urged Pope Francis to utilize Church funds to compensate them.
According to his official schedule, the Pope will not meet with victims.
Still, it is unknown whether he would apologize for the scandal or whether Bishop Belo would accompany him to Dili.
Authorities have reportedly razed homes and removed dozens of people from the area where the event would be place, prompting intense condemnation from locals.
“They even demolished our items inside the home. We now have to rent close because my children continue to attend school in this area,” Zerita Correia previously said.
The dwellings are in Tasitolu, a wetland area just outside the capital. Over the last decade, hundreds of individuals have relocated there from rural areas of the country.
Many people arrived looking for jobs in the capital and built modest homes in the region. The government claims they are squatters with no right to live on the land.
“Invest in your future with Webull UK – get started with free shares.”
A government minister said people had been made aware of intentions to remove the area in September 2023.
Critics in Timor-Leste have also questioned the choice to spend so much money on the visit, including $1 million (£762,000) on a fresh new altar.
According to the UN, roughly half of Timor-Leste’s population lives below the national poverty threshold.
This is the first papal visit to Timor-Leste since Pope John Paul II visited in 1989 when the country was still under Indonesian control.
When Indonesia seized the former Portuguese province in 1975, approximately 20% of the East Timorese population was Catholic. That figure is now at 97%.
The Pope has already visited Papua New Guinea, where around a quarter of the population identifies as Catholic, and Indonesia, where the ratio is 3%.
Pope Francis will wrap up his trip to the area in Singapore later this week.
A body was discovered during the hunt for a rugby star’s missing wife
