Pope Francis is “popular among Catholics here, but may also be [seen as] influential among the general public, which sees him as an international leader for peace, harmony and equality,” Francis Lim, S.J., said.

Some 600,000 Catholics in Timor Leste, almost half the population of the majority-Catholic country, attended the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis on the evening of Sept. 10.

Pope Francis is the first pope to visit Timor Leste since the country won independence in 2002.

In the season premiere of ‘Inside the Vatican,’ veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell reports from Jakarta, Indonesia, on the pope's visit there.

Indonesia sees itself as a site of calm and tolerance during a time when different faiths come into ruinous conflict in other nations, a self-image undermined by flare-ups of religiously motivated violence.

On the second leg of his 12-day journey to four countries, Pope Francis will take a six-hour flight Friday morning, Sept. 6, Indonesia to Papua New Guinea, a predominantly Christian country in Oceania.