Almost half the population turned out for Pope Francis' Mass in the most Catholic country outside Vatican City

Almost half the population of East Timor, the most Catholic nation outside Vatican City, attended a Mass presided over by Pope Francis on Tuesday.

Almost half the population of East Timor, the most Catholic nation outside Vatican City, attended a Mass presided over by Pope Francis on Tuesday on the third leg of his Asia trip.

An estimated 600,000 people packed the seaside park of Tasitolu near the capital, Dili, the Vatican told reporters, citing local authorities.

Some 98% of the Southeast Asian country of 1.3 million people is Catholic, and the church is seen as having played a critical role in its fight for independence from Indonesia. But the Vatican has also admitted it concealed sexual abuse by members of the clergy in East Timor, including key figures in the independence movement.

Francis, 87, is the first pope to visit East Timor since it became an independent state in 2002. It is the only Catholic-majority nation on his ambitious 12-day Asia trip, which is also taking him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

A sea of yellow and white umbrellas, the colors of the Holy See, covered the park on Tuesday as the crowd waited for Francis to arrive in the scorching afternoon sun. Firefighters occasionally sprayed water on the crowd, some of whom had been waiting since the early hours of the morning, to alleviate them from the heat.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-mass-east-timor-half-population-rcna170348

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