Pope Francis arrives in the most Catholic country in the world outside of Vatican City

() – Pope Francis arrived in the small Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Monday for the penultimate stop of a marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific for the 87-year-old leader.

Thousands of Timorese lined the streets of the capital, Dili, as Francis’ popemobile moved slowly past enthusiastic, flag-waving crowds.

But clerical sexual abuse also looms over this stage of the Pope’s visit to the region, as revelations about abuse against high-profile East Timorese clerics have emerged in recent years.

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

The country of just 1.3 million inhabitants is the second most Catholic in the world: 97% of its population identifies as Catholic, the highest percentage outside the Vatican.

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

The pontiff’s visit also puts new focus on the scourge of sexual abuse in the Church and whether Francis will directly address the issue while 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 children in his native country decades before.

On previous trips abroad, Francis has met with victims of abuse. Although it was not on the official program of his visit, some analysts have said that if Pope Francis addresses the issue of abuse during his visit to East Timor, it would send a strong message to survivors and those who have not stepped forward. both in the country and in the region.

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

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

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

Four hundred years of 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 relies heavily on its oil and gas reserves, and still faces high levels of poverty after decades of conflict.

Christina Kheng, a theologian who teaches at the East Asian Pastoral Institute, told that the young nation is “still struggling with post-war unity and nation-building.”

Like other countries in the region, East Timor is in the midst of a US-China push to gain influence in Asia, with Australia, a US ally, at the forefront of providing assistance.

East Timor is also on track to become the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc, ASEAN, which could happen next year.

A leading pro-democracy figure during the Indonesian occupation was Bishop Belo, former head of the Catholic church in East Timor, who won the Nobel Peace Prize along with President José Ramos-Horta in 1996 for their work in bringing about a peaceful end to the conflict.

In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that it had sanctioned Belo two years earlier, following accusations from two men who said the bishop raped them when they were teenagers and gave them money to buy their silence.

The Vatican said Belo, believed to reside in Portugal, has been imposed travel restrictions, “prohibition of voluntary contact with minors, of interviews and contacts with East Timor.”

While the allegations against Belo date back to 1980, the Vatican said it first became involved in the case in 2019.

has asked the Vatican if Bishop Belo’s case will be addressed during the Pope’s trip.

Dutch newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer broke the news, saying its investigation found that other children were also allegedly victims of Belo’s abuse dating back to the 1980s.

Belo has never been officially charged in East Timor and has never spoken publicly about the allegations.

In a separate case, in 2021, a court in East Timor sentenced defrocked American priest Richard Daschbach to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing vulnerable girls in his care.

The Vatican secretly sanctioned a Nobel-winning East Timorese bishop for alleged child abuse
Daschbach, a missionary who ran a shelter for orphaned children in a remote part of the country, admitted to sexually abusing girls in 2018. The Vatican expelled him from the church after his confession.

It was the first time that allegations of sexual abuse by a priest came to trial in East Timor.

Many victims of abuse in East Timor have been reluctant to come forward because of the Church’s deep connection to the struggle for independence and the government’s treatment of the few who have been convicted.

Since Pope Francis became leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in 2013, multiple reports have been published detailing decades of sexual abuse, systemic failures and cover-ups in multiple countries.

While he was criticized for some of his actions (such as when he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a sex scandal in 2018, a decision he later described as a “serious mistake”), he has since taken a firm stance on the issues and introduced some reforms, including provisions to hold lay leaders of Vatican-approved associations accountable for cover-ups of sexual abuse.

In the midst of a civil war, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in 1976 and declared the country’s 27th province following Portugal’s democratization and decision to get rid of its colonies the previous year.

Between 1975 and 1999, more than 200,000 people – roughly a quarter of the population – died in fighting and massacres or as a result of famine as Indonesian occupation forces attempted to brutally assert their control.

The international community condemned Indonesia for its repression, including in 1991, when its troops massacred young independence supporters at the Holy Cross cemetery in Dili, the capital of East Timor. The capture and imprisonment of Timorese guerrilla leader and current Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao the following year further fueled the resurgence of opposition to the Indonesian regime.

It was the fall from power of Indonesian President Suharto in 1998 and the subsequent shift in policy toward East Timor that paved the way for a UN-sponsored referendum on East Timor’s independence, which passed with more than 78.5% of votes. support in 1999.

Shortly after the vote, pro-Jakarta militias supported by the Indonesian military began killing and looting the capital, attacking churches and targeting priests and those seeking refuge as they pursued independence supporters.

Much of East Timor’s infrastructure was destroyed during the violence and some 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes. An international peacekeeping mission led by Australia eventually intervened, and East Timor officially gained its independence in 2002.

During the Indonesian occupation, the Catholic Church played an enormous role in defending the people against attacks and in pressuring for a vote on independence; Its ecclesiastical workers and clergy paid a bloody price for it.