Age, sciatica and knee problems notwithstanding, pontiff appears to have had the time of his life during wide-ranging 11-day tour.

The estimated crowd of 600,000 people Pope Francis' Mass in East Timor is nearly half of the small Southeast Asian country's population.

The Roman Catholic Church played an important part in East Timor’s independence struggle. But one of its heroes from that time has been accused of sexual abuse.

Pope Francis arrived on Monday in East Timor, a predominantly Catholic nation in Southeast Asia, for a three-day visit that will include an open-air celebration of Mass the Vatican says could draw more than half the population of 1.

East Timor is in a festive mood as it prepares for the arrival of Pope Francis on his first trip to the deeply Catholic country, hard on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the referendum on independence from Indonesia.

The pope celebrated the youthfulness of East Timor at the outdoor Mass where the crowd appeared like a sea of yellow-and-white Vatican-themed umbrellas.

But Pope Francis, age 87, hobbled by bad knees and bent over with sciatica, appeared to be having the time of his life. With half of East Timor's population gathered at a seaside park, Francis couldn't help but oblige them with a final good night and languid loops in his popemobile,

It was the farthest trip of his pontificate and one of the longest papal trips ever in terms of days on the road and distance traveled. But Pope Francis, age 87, hobbled by bad knees and bent over with sciatica,