Pope Francis arrives in the most Catholic nation in the world outside Vatican City.

 Pope Francis is greeted upon his arrival at Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili, East Timor, on September 9, 2024. Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

Dili, East Timor

CNN

 — 

Pope Francis arrived in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Monday for the penultimate stop of the 87-year-old leader’s marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific.

Thousands of Timorese lined the streets of the capital Dili as Francis’ popemobile slowly drove past enthusiastic crowds waving flags. Francis is due to preside at an open-air Mass with authorities preparing for a crowd of 750,000 people, more than half the country’s population.

But the issue of clerical sexual abuse is also hanging over this leg of the pope’s visit to the region as revelations of mistreatment concerning high profile East Timor clergy have emerged in recent years.

During his speech to the country’s political authorities, the pope called on them to tackle “every kind of abuse” to “guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people.”

East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, is one of the world’s youngest countries and has deep ties to the Catholic Church, which was influential in its tumultuous and bloody fight for independence from Indonesia.

The country of just 1.3 million people is the second-most Catholic country in the world, with 97% of the population identifying as Catholic, the highest share outside of the Vatican.

The government of East Timor allocated $12 million for Francis’ first visit to the deeply devout country, an amount which has been criticized as an exorbitant burden given it remains a small economy and one of Asia’s poorest nations.

The pontiff’s visit also puts fresh scrutiny on the scourge of sexual abuse in the church and on whether Francis will directly address the issue while he’s in East Timor, as he has done in other countries.

Two years ago, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly disciplined East Timor bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Ximenes Belo, after he was accused of sexually abusing boys decades before.

In past trips abroad, Francis has met with victims of abuse. Though not on the official program of his visit, some analysts have said if Pope Francis addresses the abuse while in East Timor, it would send a strong message to survivors and those who have not come forward, whether in the country or around the region.

A regional bastion of Catholicism

Pope Francis’ 12-day visit to Asia includes Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore – underscoring a significant shift inside the Catholic Church as it pivots to Asia.

He is the second pope to visit East Timor, after Pope John Paul II in 1989, but it’s the first papal visit for the country since it gained independence in 2002. The visit comes less than a week after the country marked the 25th anniversary of its vote to secede from Indonesia.

Located between northwestern Australia and Indonesia, the country occupies half of the island of Timor and was used by the Portuguese since the 17th century as a trading post for sandalwood.

Four hundred years of ensuing Portuguese colonial rule led to the widespread spread of Catholicism in East Timor and other cultural differences from Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Today, East Timor’s economy is heavily reliant on its oil and gas reserves, and still contends with high levels of poverty following decades of conflict.