Pope’s visit to Timor-Leste a ‘dream come true’
By Joseph Tulloch in Rome and Linda Bordoni in Dili
On Wednesday morning, Pope Francis met with a group of young people in Dili, Timor-Leste, his last event in the country before he headed to Singapore.
The Pope gave the young people two pieces of advice: ‘Make a mess’ and ‘respect your elders’.
Among those in attendance was 24 year-old Lucrezia Cesar Maria Assunção Neci. She spoke to Pope’ Linda Bordoni about her hopes for the Pope's visit.
Growing conflict, shared faith
“There’s a lot of conflict between the youth,” Ms Assunção Neci said. “Our unity and fraternity is getting a little bit lost. So I hope that, after this visit, we can be more united, we can love each other, and we can live in peace.”
The population of Timor-Leste is overwhelmingly – around 98% – Catholic. Some 600,000 people, or nearly half of the country’s population, attended an open-air Mass celebrated by the Pope on Tuesday.
Assunção Neci expressed her hope that the Pope’s visit might be able to build on this shared faith to promote harmony in the country. What she hopes, she said, is that Pope Francis might “encourage young people to live out our faith in love, peace, and unity.”
A ‘dream come true’
Assunção Neci also noted that “a lot of people” felt “very blessed” by the Pope’s visit. “It's like a dream come true,” she enthused, “full of blessings and happy memories”.
She noted how happy the hope Pope seemed while in the country, saying she had been struck by “how he smiled at us, how he talked with our children, how he talked with our government. When he smiles he transmits positive energy, peace, calm”.
Asked whether she had a final message, Assunção Neci responded in the Pope’s native Spanish: “Thank you Pope Francis for visiting our country – we love you so much!”
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