It was a far different atmosphere than when the last pope visited. St John Paul II came in 1989, when Timor was still an occupied part of Indonesia and fighting for its freedom. As many as 200,000 people were killed during the 24 years of Indonesian rule.

Francis will confront that legacy, and another one more close to home involving Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Timorese bishop who, along with Gusmao and Ramos-Horta is regarded as a hero for his efforts to win independence.

Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to the conflict.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while trying to get the United Nations to arrange a plebiscite for Timor-Leste, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so they could testify to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

In 2022, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys. The sanctions included limitations on his movements and exercise of ministry and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with Timor Leste itself. The sanctions were reinforced in 2021.

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Despite the sanctions, which were confirmed at the time by the Vatican spokesman and reaffirmed last week ahead of Francis’ trip, many people in Timor-Leste have stood by Belo, either dismissing, denying or diminishing the victims’ claims. Some even hoped Belo, who lives in Portugal, would be on hand to welcome Francis.

On Sunday Francis travelled to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea to celebrate the Catholic Church on the peripheries, bringing a tonne of medicine, musical instruments and a message of love for the people who live there.

In his remarks, the pontiff also spoke out against arming the region.

Travelling 1000 kilometres in a C-130 cargo aircraft provided by the Royal Australian Air Force, Francis arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 people in the northwestern corner of PNG’s main island, with no running water and scarce electricity.

“Christianity reaches into some of the most remote parts of PNG & Australia. We’re honoured & proud to be able to support PNG on this momentous occasion,” John Feakes, Australia’s High Commissioner to PNG, wrote on X.

The pope brought hundreds of kilograms of items to help support the local population, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, including medicines and clothing, as well as toys and musical instruments for school children.

For an Argentine pope who marvelled in 2013 at having been chosen from the “end of the Earth” to lead the church, it was a voyage to another end of the Earth on the longest, farthest trip of Francis’ pontificate.

Francis has previously travelled to the edge of the Arctic (to apologise to the Inuit people for church abuses), the Peruvian Amazon (to draw attention to its plight), and to the plains of Ur, Iraq (to boost Christian-Muslim ties). But even by his standards, Sunday’s trip to remote Vanimo was extraordinary.

A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered on the field in front of the Vanimo cathedral, singing and dancing when Francis arrived. He promptly put on a feathered headdress that was presented to him.

In remarks from a raised stage, Francis praised the church workers who go out to try to spread the faith. But he encouraged the residents of Vanimo to work on being good to one another at home, urging them to be like an orchestra, so that all members of the community come together harmoniously to overcome rivalries.

Doing so, he said, would help to “drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviours such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters”.

It was a reference to tribal violence overland and other disputes that have long characterised the country’s culture, but which has grown more lethal in recent years. Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea to urge an end to the violence, including gender-based abuse, and for a sense of civic responsibility to prevail.

AP

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