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News Archive
DILI, East Timor, MAY 13, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Tensions eased in East Timor after government and Church leaders reached an agreement regarding religious instruction in public schools. President Xanana Gusmao, leader of the movement that fought for independence from Indonesia, and local Church leaders declared religious instruction once again part of the regular school curriculum, with a clause allowing parents to remove their children from religion class, reported Fides news agency. Representatives of the local Catholic Church also suggested that religious instruction should include the tenets of Protestant Christianity and Islam, to meet the needs of religious minorities in East Timor. The conflict began in February when Muslim Prime Minister Mari Bin Amude Alkatiri approved a measure that made religion class an elective, a move that led Church leaders and citizens to take to the streets in protest beginning mid-April. The prime minister took no action to appease those opposing the law, and the demonstrations, which involved priests and religious, increased in momentum. During more than two weeks, nearly 10,000 protested in the capital city of Dili. The government deployed security forces on streets and around major public buildings, as unrest grew and demonstrators refused to go home, and many call for Alkatiri's resignation. Observers feared that opposition groups backed by the pro-Indonesia militia could take advantage of the situation to destabilize the young republic, where there is social unrest among the people, scourged by poverty and unemployment. East Timor is an Asian state of some 800,000 inhabitants, 96% of whom are Catholic, a legacy of Portuguese colonialism. Unilaterally annexed by Indonesia in 1976, East Timor was the scene of atrocious violence in the weeks following the referendum on independence in August 1999. Since May 20, 2002,
the Democratic Republic of Timor has enjoyed recognition as a sovereign
nation and is a member of the United Nations.
DILI, East Timor, MAY 6, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Tension in East Timor over the question of religious instruction in public schools is threatening to degenerate into disorder and open violence, reported Fides news agency. A meeting on Thursday between religious and government leaders, of the country formerly part of the Indonesian archipelago, failed to resolve a dispute that has been months in the making over a bill, passed in February, that made religious instruction optional. Peaceful demonstrations began in mid April when local Church authorities criticized the government's decision. The media and the bishops urged that people ask for the measure to be revoked, and to reinstate compulsory religious education, but Muslim Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri took no action. The demonstrations, which involve priests and religious, have increased in momentum. During the last two weeks, nearly 10,000 protesters have taken to the streets of the capital city of Dili. The government has deployed security forces on streets and around major public buildings, as unrest grows and demonstrators refuse to go home. The Catholic Church proposes that the teaching of religion continue to be compulsory, and that it should include the basic tenets of Protestant Christianity and Islam as well, to meet the needs of the country's religious minorities. Although no agreement has been reached on religious instruction in schools, which has led to the demand for Alkatiri's resignation, the prime minister is keeping to his agenda. He will leave Dili to visit the interior of the country today, and will not return until May 11. Observers say that opposition groups backed by pro-Indonesia militia could take advantage of the situation to destabilize the young republic, where there is social unrest among the people, scourged by poverty and unemployment. East Timor is an Asian state of some 800,000 inhabitants, 96% of whom are Catholic, a legacy of Portuguese colonialism. Unilaterally annexed by Indonesia in 1976, East Timor was the scene of atrocious violence in the weeks following the referendum on independence in August 1999. Since May 20, 2002, the Democratic Republic of Timor has enjoyed recognition as a sovereign nation and is a member of the United Nations.
Mr. E.: Yes. The vast majority of Timorese attend Mass on Sundays, but on the rare occasions that I have attended a Novus Ordo (for a funeral etc.) I have noticed that far too many people go to Holy Communion, which makes me suspect that the clergy do not pay sufficient attention to examination of conscience before Communion or to regular Confession. It should be borne in mind that in 1975 only 30% of the population was baptised. Most of the people are therefore ‘New Christians’. The reason why 95% of Timorese are now Catholic is because the Indonesians, between 1975 and 1980, ordered the 70% of animists to choose a religion officially recognized by the state (all animists were suspected ‘Communists’), and although there were some attempts to convert people to Islam, almost all the animists opted for Catholicism because of centuries of cordial relations with the Church. The people are very devoted to Our Lady and to St Anthony of Lisbon/Padua. The rosary is the daily prayer of very many people and there is great devotion to the Holy Souls. East Timor has an important Chinese community, and Sino-Timorese are almost all Catholics. In the past, Portuguese Timor was part of the diocese of Macao, so the Chinese link has always been strong. In sharp contrast to the very religious Timorese, the Portuguese appear to be even more dechristianized than the French. There are now many Portuguese working in East Timor and I have only met two who ever go to church on Sundays. The religious ignorance of even well-educated Portuguese is astonishing. And it is not true that the north of Portugal is practising’ and the south is pagan (as was the case in Salazar’s day). My impression is that the Portuguese bourgeoisie today is utterly indifferent to Christianity, and it would appear that in Portugal mostly only country people still go to Mass. Whereas in France and Italy there are groups of strongly Catholic middle-class Catholics, this class apparently is non-existent in Portugal (at least from my observations in Timor). The Timorese despise the irreligion of the Portuguese, as attached as they are to the Portuguese language. In general, Brazilians are better liked than the Portuguese from Portugal. At one time I was hoping that the Campos traditionalists in Brazil would do something for East Timor, but I have heard that they have no missionary ambitions, and in any case their recent deal with Rome would probably inhibit their challenging the Novus Ordo establishment in other Lusophone country. There is a small Protestant minority (about 4%). Calvin would be horrified: most Protestants (including the pastors) have holy pictures in their houses, just like the Catholics!
Mr. E.: The official languages of East Timor are Tetum and Portuguese. There are 15 other national languages, 11 Austronesian and 4 Papuan. Ethnically, Timor belongs to Melanesia rather than to South-East Asia. It is closer to New Guinea than to Jakarta. Tetum is an Austronesian language full of Portuguese loanwords. It is a beautiful and melodious language and very suited to singing. The younger generations are being taught Portuguese again and Indonesian is being phased out of public life. Australians and internationals (especially UN staff) are hostile to the (very traditionalist) language policy and are campaigning for English as an official language. The government has resisted this pressure; the Latin culture is valued and no responsible East Timorese wants the country to become a second Philippines. They know that the abandonment of Spanish language and culture and the Americanization of the country opened the door to schism and Protestant and secular influences there, and they don’t want East Timor to suffer that fate. In the liturgy Portuguese (with some residual Latin) was used from 1969 to 1979. The Indonesians ordered the clergy to stop using Portuguese but the clergy petitioned Jakarta for the use of Tetum instead of Indonesian. The Indonesians, ignorant of the fact that Tetum is a highly latinized language and a natural stepping-stone to Portuguese, granted permission, and liturgical Tetum become a cornerstone of national resistance. Today Mass
is celebrated in either Tetum or Portuguese. Until recently, Indonesian
was still the liturgical medium in the Oecussi enclave, because
the clergy were mostly Indonesians from Flores, members of the Divine
Word order. But recently the Bishop of Dili ordered them to introduce
Tetum and Portuguese in all churches. The Timorese are liturgically
conservative compared to the Indonesians and used to complain to
me about Indonesian modernist practices, such as saying ‘Mass’’
sitting on the floor.
Mr. E.: The only French in East Timor are occasional members of the UN staff and visitors. I haven’t noticed any practising Catholics or traditionalists among them. Most people who work for the United Nations are intensely materialistic and secular-minded. They earn huge salaries, drive around in big cars, eat in fancy restaurants and so on while the people they are supposed to help live in grinding poverty. There is no Francophone clergy from abroad, though there was a Belgian Jesuit (a Walloon) there in the 1980s. However, since French was the traditional second language of the Portuguese, many older Timorese educated before 1975 have some knowledge of French and are culturally Gallophile. The French embassy in Jakarta is working to have a branch of the Alliance Française opened in Dili and to promote French as an antidote to English. Some Australians who work in or visit East Timor are from French-speaking families, mostly from North Africa, Mauritius or the Seychelles. A surprisingly large number of Timorese know Italian, either priests who have studied in Rome or people who were educated by the Salesian priests and nuns or the Canossian sisters, who have many missions in East Timor.
Mr. E.: East Timor may be the only country on earth today where there is no Communion in the hand, no doubt a great grace. They stand for Communion, but unfortunately the nuns also distribute it.
Mr. E.: Yes, they love Gregorian chant, and sing it often. A typical sung Mass in East Timor is a mixture of Tetum, Portuguese and Gregorian chant in Latin. The priests still use the old Liber Usualis to teach plainsong to seminarians and schoolchildren.
Mr. E.: They did until the late 90s but now they wear secular dress, and appear in the cassock only on special occasions. The two bishops (of Baucau and Dili) are more inclined to wear the soutane. By contrast, ALL the nuns wear the habit (including the veil), with the exception of a group of modernist American Maryknoll nuns in Aileu. The people admire the nuns for wearing the habit and often complain about priests in mufti. Some modernist priests and nuns from Australia have been trying very hard to infect East Timorese Catholics with their heresies and culture of rebellion against all legitimate authority, but few people pay any attention to them, thank God. The Portuguese and Tetum languages work as an effective barrier to modernism from Australia which speaks only English and is culturally very anglocentric.
Mr. E.: No-one, unfortunately, and I mix with Timorese from all classes and all over the country. The Catholicism is typically Portuguese. As you know, Southern European modernism is insidious because it has a conservative façade, which disinclines people to look behind it. My impression is that no-one would complain if the old liturgy returned tomorrow (especially if it made some concessions to the vernacular), but Timorese Catholics would never dream of complaining about anything, in liturgy or theology, approved by the Pope. By the way, all altars have been turned around or replaced by tables, and what is rather disconcerting (given the strong popular piety) is the plainness and ugliness of most church interiors. One strange thing. A senior priest who knew of my traditionalist views once said to me, quite out of the blue: “Quem sabe, talvez Monsenhor Lefebvre tivesse razão. (Who knows, maybe Mgr. Lefebvre was right after all)." But he never showed any interest in the old Mass and told me one day that the clergy must now teach the people (orders from Rome) that there are several paths to salvation, not just one.
Isn't the country one of, if not the most Catholic country in the world? Mr. E.: You might be interested to know that during the national consultation that preceded the framing of the Constitution of 20 May 2000, the population overwhelmingly supported the draft constitution, but all over the country there were protests about the clause stating that there was indeed no official religion. The people demanded that Catholicism be made the state religion. They were opposed by the two bishops, who informed the population that the Holy See no longer approves of official Catholicism, so now East Timor is an officially secular state. Too bad for the sensus fidelium, so inconvenient to Vatican Realpolitik. And what happened to vox populi vox Dei, I wonder? Here then you can see one of the few Catholic peoples literally more Catholic than the Pope. Thank you very much, Mr. E. ! We will surely pray to Our Lady of Fatima for Tradition to return soon to East Timor. Timor Begs For Helpers November 8, 2002 - East Timor's Nobel Peace Prizewinner Bishop Belo is appealing for volunteers to help his struggling nation that is still less than one year old. He wants teachers of Portuguese and he wants priests, for the smallest parish there numbers 50,000 souls. Those that come though "will have to get used to great sacrifices because here we don't eat meat or drink wine." There are still 50,000 illegally detained prisoners still suffering at the hands of terrorists who threaten anyone who wants to return home across the border to East Timor. These prisoners live in terrible conditions, many children dying, many girls being raped by the soldiers. The soldiers are allegedly drawn to the international aid sent to the prisoners.
JAKARTA, Indonesia, MAY 29, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Indonesia's newly established human rights court called its first witness from East Timor to testify over violence surrounding the tiny territory's bloody independence vote in 1999. Dominggos dos Santos Mouzinho, a 44-year-old housewife from the township of Suai, told the court in Central Jakarta how she took refuge in the local Catholic church the day before a massacre there, Reuters reported. "On the fifth [of September] a group of militiamen burst into my house ... I saw them, they were armed and there were quite a lot. They shot at my house, firing at the door," Mouzinho told the court on Tuesday. Four middle-ranking officers and a policeman have been charged with failing to give protection to 24 East Timorese refugees and three priests killed in the church on Sept. 6. But the appearance of Mouzinho and plans to summon other key witnesses from East Timor has failed to convince human rights advocates that Indonesian authorities are serious about punishing those involved in the 1999 violence. "The indictments are so weak that it is not clear that even strong witness testimonies will have an effect of actually proving crimes against humanity," Jakarta-based rights expert Sidney Jones told Reuters. Jones, Indonesia project director for the International Crisis Group think tank, also said the court's narrow mandate would hamper the process. A presidential decree covering the trials only allows for violence committed in April and September 1999 to be subject to trial, excluding hundreds of other cases of serious crimes during the independence process. The wave of destruction and bloodshed was triggered by an overwhelming vote on Aug. 30, 1999, to break from 24 years of often brutal Indonesian rule. Gangs of pro-Indonesian militia backed by elements of the Indonesian military laid waste to the territory, and the United Nations estimates more than 1,000 people were killed. East Timor, still aiming to recover from the trauma, formally declared independence last week when U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan handed over the reins of power. But Indonesia has done little to convince a skeptical international community that those responsible for the bloodshed would be brought to account. The authorities' failure to put former military chief General Wiranto on trial with 18 suspects has been seen as a key flaw. Jones also
said Indonesia's refusal to pay to bring witnesses from East Timor
to Jakarta also showed a lack of determination. "If the attorney
general's office here really wanted to convict the people indicted
then it would take on the responsibility of bringing them to Indonesia,"
she said, adding that the United Nations had to bear the cost.
New Born Country is Second Asian Nation With a Catholic Majority (Dili) – May 20 is the first day of life for a new nation East Timor, the second Asian country, after the Philippines, with a Catholic majority. More than 90 percent of the population of 800,000 profess the Catholic faith brought to the Island by the Portuguese colonisers. However for the new nation state and religion are separate. The Constitution approved on March 22 this year declares the country a secular republic and guarantees religious freedom. The local Church has always supported the peoples’ struggle for independence, and paid a tribute of bloodshed in the building of the new nation. Three priests and two nuns were among between 1500 and 2000 victims in massacres which followed the 1999 referendum which voted for independence: a parish priest, Father Hilario Madeira and two Jesuits Father Karl Albrecht and Father Tarcisius Dewanto, Sister Erminia Cazzaniga and Sister Celeste Pinto. In this new era the Church is working to promote reconciliation at the cultural level with seminaries on forgiveness and peace. Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, apostolic administrator of Dili, Nobel peace prize winner in 1996, has taken an active part in promoting the rights of the people. The administrator of the second diocese in Timor is Bishop Basilio Do Nascimento. The Church in Tomor will soon have a third diocese and a Bishops’ Conference. (20/5/2002)
Dili (Fides) – "The people of East Timor must put aside suspicion and divisions. We need national reconciliation with justice. We also need to build good relations with neighbouring countries, Indonesia in particular." Fides Agency was told this by Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes, Nobel peace prize winner, on the first day of East Timor as an independent nation, the first new nation of the millennium. "Today we bury past hatred. I think that the peoples of East Timor and Indonesia must look to the future. The role of the Church, as always, will be to work for peace in society and in the world. This is why the Church will take an active part in forging relations between East Timor and Indonesia". On Sunday May 19 as part of the celebrations for independence Bishop Belo and Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja, president of the Indonesian Bishops Conference, concelebrated Mass with about a hundred priests attended by more than 130,000 people. (20/5/2002)
Dili (Fides)
– East Timor Catholics have a deep devotion to Our Lady of
Fatima. Aware of this, on the occasion of the birth of the new nation,
Bishop Belo has entrusted the country to the care and intercession
of the Blessed Virgin. On May 13 Bishop Belo went to the Marian
shrine in Portugal where he was presented with a statue for the
people of East Timor. The statue has begun to visit the 13 districts
of the East Timor. In every village the statue of Our Lady is welcomed
with flowers, hymns and prayers. 20/5/2002) |
