Pope Francis’s East Timor mass attended by 600,000 – half the country’s population

Pope Francis’s mass in East Timor has been attended by around 600,000 Catholic faithful – nearly half of the country’s population – despite local anger over a demolition drive and the high cost associated with his visit.

The pontiff completes the penultimate leg of his marathon tour through Asia and the South Pacific on Tuesday before he heads to Singapore for his final stop.

A sea of yellow and white umbrellas – the colours of the Holy See flag – was seen at Tasitolu Peace Park in the capital Dili, where the pope received a rockstar’s welcome in scorching 32C heat.

A Vatican spokesperson said 600,000 people attended the first part of the mass in the tiny country with a population of just 1.3 million, the vast majority of whom are Catholics. The Vatican cited crowd estimates provided by local organisers in Tasitolu Peace Park and surrounding areas.

It is the same site where St John Paul II celebrated a liturgy during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia.

If confirmed, it would make for the largest gathering of people to attend a papal event proportionally to a country’s population.

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The pontiff’s three-day visit to one of the world’s poorest countries was overshadowed by controversy over the budget of $12m (£9.1m) allocated for it by the Council of Ministers in February.

At least $1m was spent on erecting a papal mass altar, allegedly after the demolition of a number of homes and the eviction of dozens of people, sparking public anger.

The expense for the visit was criticised as the country is facing one of the world’s worst food security challenges and nearly 42 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.

Nonetheless, there was huge excitement ahead of Tuesday’s event, as attendees began filling the seaside park from 4am local time – more than 12 hours before the mass was set to begin. The crowd, made up of young and old alike, broke into cheers of “Viva Papa Francisco”, or “Long live the Pope” as he arrived and sat under an umbrella to escape the heat.

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Reverend Pedro Amaral, one of hundreds of priests celebrating the Mass, told Reuters he came with 800 of his parishioners from Zumalai, a village around 85 miles away.

“I am so happy because we never thought we would see the Pope,” he said.

After the Vatican itself, East Timor is the most Catholic country in the world based on the percentage of the population who are counted as believers, with the Vatican saying approximately 97 per cent of Timorese are adherents to the faith.

Francis is the first pope to visit East Timor since it gained independence in 2002, and the only pope to make a trip there at all apart from John Paul II, whose visit 34 years ago gave the country’s independence movement a historic boost.

The Pope’s visit also put a spotlight on the issue of sexual abuse within the church. Activists and observers had called on Francis to address the issue directly during his time in East Timor, as he did in other countries.

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Arriving on Monday, the Pope urged the people to do “everything possible to prevent every kind of abuse and guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people”.

The Pope did not directly address any specific case. But his visit comes after the Vatican admitted that it had secretly sanctioned Timorese Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, a Nobel laureate, following allegations he sexually abused boys in the country in the 1990s.

The Pope is making the long foreign trip of his papacy even as he faces a number of health challenges and uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain. He has appeared in good spirits despite the long air travel and social engagements in three countries he has covered so far.

He began his trip in Indonesia before flying to Papua New Guinea, and will conclude his 12-day tour in Singapore. He will return to Rome on 13 September.