With over 98% of its population of 1.3 million people identifying as Catholic, Timor-Leste’s Catholic presence is only outnumbered by the Vatican City State. Yet Timor-Leste’s position as the world’s most Catholic nation is a relatively new phenomenon. It was not until the fall of Portuguese oversight in 1974–after four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule–and Indonesia’s military invasion in 1975 that Catholic affiliation among Timorese citizens reached significant numbers. During Indonesia’s brutal occupation of Timor-Leste from 1975 to 1999, the Catholic Church became the cultural stronghold and spatial center of Timorese resistance to Indonesian imperialism. It was one of the only institutions that offered protection and support to independence fighters. When independence was formally established in 2003, the first national census revealed that nearly all of its citizens officially registered as Catholic.
Today, Catholicism predominates urban life in Timor-Leste. From education to healthcare to the built environment, the Catholic Church pervades the social, political, and economic infrastructures of the state. The preamble of the Constitution of Timor-Leste recognizes the contribution of the Catholic Church. Every year, the State of Timor-Leste currently provides local archdioceses with generous funding for social aid, diverting millions of dollars from its annual budget. It is often difficult to discern where state and ecclesial power begin and end. The influence of the Church in Timorese urban life gained international attention in 2024 when half of the country’s citizens–over 600,000 people–attended Pope Francis’ open air Mass in the seaside village of Tasitolu as part of his apostolic journey. Hailed as a testimony to national identity and faith, the papal visitation coincided with the 25th anniversary of Timor-Leste’s independence.
What did not garner the same global attention were the people who paid the price for Pope Francis’ apostolic journey to Timor-Leste. This paper examines the oft-overlooked displacement of over 1,000 Timorese families to make way for capital building projects associated with the papal journey. It uncovers the capital partnerships between the State of Timor-Leste and the Church as they co-constitutively make claims to Timorese land over and against informal settlements by indigenous communities. It pays particular attention to the forcible displacement of over 200 Timorese families in Tasitolu to make way for the erection of a $1.5 million permanent altar designed by Vatican engineers. The altar commandeered over one-third of the nation’s annual budget. An ethnographic exploration, this paper brings together interviews, event observations, and site analyses to argue that the monumental architectures of the papal visitation both obscure and stridently declare the Church’s imbrication in financial and real estate monopolies in Timor-Leste.
Catholicism predominates urban life in Timor-Leste. From education to healthcare to the built environment, the Catholic Church pervades the social, political, and economic infrastructures of the world’s most Catholic nation. This influence gained international attention in 2024 when half of the country’s citizens–over 600,000 people–attended Pope Francis’ open air Mass as a part of his apostolic journey. This paper examines the overlooked displacement of over 1,000 Timorese families to make way for capital building projects associated with the papal journey. It uncovers the capital partnerships between the State of Timor-Leste and the Church as they co-constitutively make claims to Timorese land over and against informal settlements by indigenous communities. An ethnographic exploration, this paper brings together interviews, event observations, and site analyses to argue that the monumental architectures of the papal visitation both obscure and stridently declare the Church’s imbrication in financial and real estate monopolies in Timor-Leste.