Just months after Pope Francis visited Catholic-majority East Timor, residents on Tuesday mourned his death with flags at half-mast, candle-lit vigils and emotional ceremonies with his trip fresh in their memory.
Thousands descended on the main cathedral for evening mass in the capital Dili, where as the sun set a giant screen showed Francis’s face and the date of his death.
“Welcome to East Timor” signs still lined some streets, heralding his arrival in September on the second papal visit to the former Portuguese colony.
“It’s not just about a pope, it’s about the person that I saw,” said NGO worker Natasha De Jesus.
“We’re still connected to each other.”
Wiping away tears behind her black glasses, De Jesus said Francis’s death had left a mark on the country, which has deep connections to Catholicism.
“His death was one of the most heartbreaking for me, for everyone in East Timor,” she told AFP.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in East Timor to see the Argentine pontiff, who also visited Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore on a gruelling Asia-Pacific tour.
“Since the pope just visited a few months ago, the memory is still vivid,” said local journalist Ato Lekinawa Costa.
“It’s a huge thing.”
Pope Francis addressed the faithful for hours in tropical conditions on the outskirts of Dili, which is nestled between mountains and turquoise waters.
At the dusty Tasi Tolu esplanade where the pope had spoken, residents turned up to pay their respects, with some laying flowers and lighting candles as night fell.
– ‘Like Francisco’ –
Francis’s visit was a feverish sight compared to the sombre, week-long mourning period currently underway in Asia’s youngest nation.
Timorese, Vatican and police flags flew at half-mast in the pope’s honour, while at Dili’s cathedral men and women wiped their tears away as hymns began.
The church was packed to two levels, while worshippers filled surrounding gardens and roads in the tropical heat to hear the ceremony through a loudspeaker.
Schoolchildren and workers poured into the compound at the end of their day, with many adorning shirts handed out during Francis’s visit.
East Timor achieved independence in 2002, after years of war against an occupying Indonesian military.
On his visit last year, Pope Francis lauded the impoverished, nascent nation for its reconciliation with neighbour Indonesia.
“We were all shocked,” said actor Nixon Nunez, 29, who said the pope was revered like a saint in East Timor, above even the president.
“He cared about all human beings. He cared about the poor. He saw that all the people are the same.”
Some Timorese hope the next leader of the Catholic faith follows in his footsteps.
“I hope he’s like Pope Francisco,” said government worker Lucia Soriano, 48.
