Pope Francis arrived in East Timor on Monday to encourage its recovery from a bloody and traumatic past and rejoice its development after twenty years of independence from Indonesian rule.
Francis arrived in Dili from Papua New Guinea to open the third leg of his trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania. He’ll meet with Timorese leaders and diplomats later Monday.
The overwhelmingly Catholic East Timor, one among the world’s poorest countries, eagerly awaited Francis’ arrival, which got here on the heels of the twenty fifth anniversary of the U.N.-backed referendum that paved the way in which for independence from Indonesia.
“Our great hope is that he may come to consolidate the fraternity, the national unity, peace and development for this recent country,” said Estevão Tei Fernandes, a university professor.
It was a far different atmosphere than when the last pope visited. St. John Paul II got here in 1989, when Timor was still an occupied a part of Indonesia and fighting for its freedom. As many as 200,000 people were killed in the course of the 24 years of Indonesian rule.
Francis will confront that legacy, and one other another near home involving Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Timorese bishop who, together with the Catholic Church as an entire, is thought to be a hero for his efforts to win independence.
Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon José Ramos-Horta, today the country’s president, for campaigning for a good and peaceful solution to the conflict.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while attempting to get the United Nations to rearrange a plebiscite for East Timor, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so that they could testify to the U.N. human rights commission in Geneva.
In 2022, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys. The sanctions included limitations on his movements and exercise of ministry and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with East Timor itself. The sanctions were reinforced in 2021.
Despite the sanctions, which were confirmed on the time by the Vatican spokesman and reaffirmed last week ahead of Francis’ trip, many individuals in East Timor have stood by Belo, either dismissing, denying or diminishing the victims’ claims. Some even hoped Belo, who lives in Portugal, could be available to welcome Francis.
