Pope Francis blessed and took a disabled child by the hand on Tuesday (September 10) during an emotional visit to the Irmas Alma school for children with disabilities on the second day of his visit to East Timor.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Pope is scheduled to hold a mass with several hundred thousand people on the outskirts of the capital Dili, at the Tasitolu, a wide dusty coastal area.

East Timor, a half-island nation north of Australia, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, after a brutal, decades-long occupation. Francis is the second pope to visit, following John Paul II, who came in 1989, in a trip that gave the country's independence movement an historic boost.

Since independence, the country has struggled with rebuilding its infrastructure and economy. Although Timorese have remained overwhelmingly Catholic, the church in the country has been affected recently by abuse scandals.