Tag: Timor-Leste

Photographer Armando Lay visited Timor-Leste on assignment with The Catholic Weekly in September. But what he found there with his poor nation’s faithful was personal healing and the resolution of long-standing questions about his own identity.

Pope Francis’ visit to Timor-Leste saw half the country’s population gather for Mass in the blazing Sun outside the capital, Dili. Proportionally, the turnout surpassed St John Paul II’s historic visits to Warsaw and Dublin in 1979. How this small, poor nation became the world’s most Catholic is a story of deliverance and answered prayers.

While their parents and grandparents won the independence of Timor-Leste, the country's young adults must take up the task of consolidating democratic institutions and responding to poverty and other social ills, Pope Francis said.

The pope reflected on the Last Judgement while visiting students of the nuns of the Alma congregation, where they welcomed him with traditional music.

An estimated 700,000 people gathered to celebrate an outdoor Mass with Pope Francis on a sprawling esplanade near the Capital City of East Timor, with a choir of hundreds. 

In a predominantly Catholic country where clergy are treated with great respect, they must make extra efforts to remain humble servants of their people, Pope Francis told the priests of Timor-Leste.

Pope Francis was welcomed at the airport in Dili, Timor-Leste, by both President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, as well as two children who offered him flowers.

Australian volunteers working in Timor-Leste say excitement is growing ahead of Pope Francis’ visit there next month, when more than half of the mostly Catholic population is expected to converge on the capital Dili.

Nine pilgrims from Timor Leste were supported by the Archdiocese of Sydney to attend World Youth Day in Lisbon, and had the opportunity to...

Auxiliary Bishop Richard Umbers has urged Catholic school students across Sydney to reflect more deeply on the challenges faced by communities living in poverty overseas and look at practical ways to offer ongoing help to them throughout the school year.

Maliana is one of the most picturesque postcard provinces of Timor-Leste. Beautiful, sweeping coastlines butted up against dense, green mountain regions. Yet the natural beauty...

Violence across all facets of life has been part of the fabric of Timor-Leste for the past half-century. After the struggle to gain independence from...