During his trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania, the pontiff also visited Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Pope Francis has landed in Singapore on Wednesday for the final leg of his trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest and farthest of his papal trips and one of the lengthiest trips of any head of the Catholic Church.
After a brief farewell ceremony in the overwhelmingly Catholic Southeast Asian country of Timor-Leste, the pope and his delegation departed aboard local carrier Aero Dili’s only aircraft, an Airbus A320.
During his visit to Timor-Leste, the pontiff drew a crowd of 600,000 — nearly half the country’s population — for a record-breaking mass on Tuesday.
He wrapped up his visit with a rally Wednesday morning of the country’s young people, who make up the majority of the population of 1.3 million.
Pope Francis urged them to work together to shape the country’s future and build upon the foundations of older generations that had secured their independence from Indonesia in 2002.
“Go forward with the happiness of youth, but don’t forget one thing,” he said, “You are the heirs of those who persevered in founding this nation. For this, don’t lose your memory, the memory of those who persevered with so much sacrifice to consolidate this nation.”
In final remarks, the pope warned the crowd to beware of “crocodiles” who come ashore and “want to change your culture, your history”.
It was an apparent reference to Timor-Leste’s colonial past, but also, its current attractiveness to international commercial organisations keen to develop its natural oil and gas reserves which serve as the bedrock of the Timorese economy.
Pope Francis has long criticised multinational companies that exploit poor countries for their natural resources for their own benefit without adequately compensating the local population or protecting the environment.
The 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church discarded prepared remarks to address the crowd in his native Spanish, as he often does around young people.
Prior to Timor-Leste, Pope Francis visited Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. He is expected to clock 32,814 kilometres by air during his 2-13 September visit, far surpassing any of his previous 44 foreign trips.
