When Pope Francis touches down in the East Timorese capital of Dili this week he will be landing in a totally different nation to the one visited by his predecessor.
Nuns walk past a banner installed for welcoming Pope Francis ahead of his visit in Dili, East Timor, on Sept 7, 2024
Now as one of the world's newest and predominantly Catholic nations prepares for a second papal visit, the 72-year-old priest said East Timor's struggle is about building the impoverished, half-island nation. After a brutal, decades-long occupation by Indonesia, East Timor, or Timor Leste, gained independence in 2002 following a UN-supervised referendum.
In 2022, the Vatican confirmed it had sanctioned Timorese Bishop and Nobel laureate Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo following allegations he sexually abused boys in Timor in the 1990s. "The turnout will be astonishing," said Leach, "Catholicism is one of the things that unites Timorese."So entwined is the Catholic church in East Timor's battle for freedom, that independence hero and incumbent Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao described it as the "backbone of the resistance".
"The nationalist thing to do was to convert to Catholicism. The whole idea of a Timorese nation really comes from that period," said Leach.
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