This handout picture taken and released on Sunday, September 8, 2024 by the Vatican Press Office shows Pope Francis interacting with a youth during a meeting at the Holy Trinity Humanities School in Baro, Papua New Guinea. - AFP
DILI, East Timor (AFP): When Pope Francis becomes the first pontiff to visit an independent East Timor, he will confront a clergy beset by child abuse scandals that have been largely ignored by the deeply Catholic country's freedom heroes.
Cases include Nobel-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who helped Asia's youngest nation free itself from Indonesian occupation, but who the Vatican secretly punished over claims he had sexually abused young children for decades.
