Nearly half of East Timor’s population —- packed a seaside park Tuesday for Pope Francis’ final Mass, held on the same field where St. John Paul II prayed 35 years ago.

(RNS) — Catholicism may be in decline in the West, but in East Timor, thousands gathered to catch a glimpse of the pope from the end of the world.

Pope Francis celebrated a papal mass in East Timor on Monday, drawing a crowd of over 600,000 worshipers representing almost half of the country's entire population.

Pope Francis meets with East Timor’s President José Manuel Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a prominent figure in East Timor’s struggle for independence, at the Presidential ...

TASITOLU, East Timor (AP) — Popes are popular. So much so that nearly half the population of East Timor gathered Tuesday in a seaside park for Pope Francis’ final Mass in the small Southeast ...

A billboard welcoming Pope Francis stands above a mural honoring Bishop Belo and three others as national heros in Dili, East Timor, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. Photo by: Achmad Ibrahim / AP ...

Pope Francis received a rapturous welcome from the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, where almost half the population turned out for an open ...

On the second day of his apostolic visit to East Timor (Timor-Leste), Pope Francis first met with children and religious sisters at the Irmãs Alma School in Dili on Tuesday morning and thanked ...

Pope Francis received a raucous welcome Monday as he arrived in East Timor to celebrate its recovery from a bloody and traumatic independence battle, even as he indirectly acknowledged an abuse ...

An estimated 600,000 Catholics attended Pope Francis’ Mass on Tuesday in East Timor, a small island country that is 98% Catholic. The pope celebrated the youthfulness of East Timor at the ...

TASITOLU, East Timor (AP) — An estimated 600,000 people — nearly half of East Timor’s population —- packed a seaside park Tuesday for Pope Francis’ final Mass, held on the same field ...

The Vatican says some 600,000 people have attended Pope Francis' Mass in East Timor, or nearly half the country's population.