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Pope mass draws 600,000 in Catholic-majority East Timor

An estimated 600,000 people, nearly half of East Timor’s population packed a seaside park for Pope Francis’s mass [Willy Kurniawan/Pool/AP Photo]

The remarkable turnout was a testament to the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Southeast Asian country and the esteem with which its people hold the church. [Firdia Lisnawati/AP Photo]

Francis stayied at Tasitolu park until well after nightfall to loop around the field in his open-topped popemobile, with the screens of the crowd's mobile phones lighting up the evening. [Dita Alangkara, Pool/AP Photo]

“I wish for you peace, that you keep having many children, and that your smile continues to be your children,” Francis said in his native Spanish. [Willy Kurniawan/Pool/Reuters]

Lourenca Lelan from the Becora parish in East Timor waits to free some doves during a votive mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen presided by Pope Francis in Tasitolu, some eight kilometres (five miles) west of Dili, East Timor. [Gregorio Borgia/AP Photo]

Other papal masses have drawn millions of people in more populous countries, such as the Philippines, and there were other nationalities represented at Tuesday's mass. But the crowd in East Timor, population 1.3 million, was believed to represent the biggest turnout for a papal event ever, in terms of the proportion of the national population. [Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]

Catholic faithful react to released birds during the mass. [Yasuyoshi Chiba/Pool via Reuters]

The Tasitolu park was a sea of yellow and white umbrellas — the colours of the Holy See flag — as Timorese shielded themselves from the afternoon sun awaiting Francis’ arrival. They got occasional spritzes of relief from water trucks that plied the field with hoses. [Firdia Lisnawati/AP Photo]

The sheer number of people descending on Dili caused at least one local telecom company to inform customers their signal would be affected by the pope's visit. [Dita Alangkara/Pool/AP Photo]