TASITOLU, East Timor — Popes are popular. So much so that nearly half the population of East Timor gathered on Tuesday in a seaside park for Pope Francis’ final Mass in the small Southeast Asian country, whose people are deeply Catholic.
Other papal Masses have drawn millions of people in more populous countries, such as the Philippines, Brazil, and Poland. However, the estimated crowd of 600,000 people in East Timor is believed to represent the largest turnout for a papal event ever in terms of the proportion of the population.
East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, has been overwhelmingly Catholic since Portuguese explorers first arrived in the early 1500s. Today, about 97% of the population is Catholic. The people turned out in droves to welcome the first pope to visit them since their independence in 2002, at the same field where St. John Paul II prayed in 1989 during the nation’s struggle to separate from Indonesia.
While the East Timor gathering stands out, experts caution against relying on crowd counts that cannot be independently verified. The Vatican communicates crowd estimates provided by local organizers, who may have an interest in overestimating the popularity of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Still, there’s no doubt that popes can pack a venue—be it a room or a park. Here’s a look at other popular papal Masses:
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