An estimated 600,000 people packed a seaside park in East Timor for Pope Francis' Mass — a figure nearing half of the small Southeast Asian country's population. It took place on the same field where St. John Paul II prayed during the nation’s fight for independence from Indonesia. While other papal Masses have drawn millions of people in more populous countries, the crowd in small East Timor is believed to represent the biggest turnout for a papal event ever in terms of the proportion of the population. Other massive crowds to see popes have occurred in the Philippines, Brazil, Congo and Poland.
