ASIA/EAST TIMOR - Stories of faith and martyrdom in the Church of East Timor

Dili (Agenzia Fide) - There is "a wonderful story of heroism, of faith, of martyrdom and above all of faith and reconciliation" in East Timor, said Pope Francis, addressing young Timorese people in his last meeting before leaving the small Catholic nation in Southeast Asia for Singapore. This story was written above all in the bloodiest phase of the conflict with Indonesia, at the time of the independence referendum in 1999, when pro-Indonesian armed gangs perpetrated massacres and acts of indiscriminate violence before the occupying army left Timorese territory. Representatives of the Church also suffered: the bishop of Baucau was wounded, others were forced to flee, priests, consecrated catechists, seminarians lost their lives. According to the Fides annals, Tarcisius Dewanto, a Jesuit, Hilario Madeira and Francisco Soares, three priests from East Timor, who were carrying out pastoral work in the Catholic Church of Suai, are listed among the "pastoral workers killed in a violent manner". They were killed on 6 September 1999 and the baptized community of East Timor celebrates the Day of the Missionary Martyrs every year in their memory. The priests used their bodies as a shield to try to prevent the massacre of 100 civilians. Five days after the Suai massacre, Karl Albrecht, a 70-year-old German Jesuit who had arrived in Indonesia in 1959, was also shot dead in his home. In Dare, Father Francisco Barreto, then director of the local Caritas, was later killed. A little further east, between Dili and Baucau, on 25 September, two Canossian nuns were killed along with some seminarians and lay people while on their way to help the displaced. They were Sister Erminia Cazzaniga, an Italian, and Sister Celeste de Carvalho Pinto. Today, the Missionary Group of Sirtori, Sister Erminia's birthplace in the province of Lecco (Italy), is collecting material to promote the cause of the proclamation of her martyrdom. Following the vote for independence, loyalist militias, supported by the Indonesian army, launched a punitive campaign, killing some 1,400 Timorese citizens and forcing more than 300,000 people to flee. Priests, nuns, religious men and women, catechists could have easily left the island, but, inspired by faith and charity, they chose to remain at the side of the population and give their lives for the defenseless people, until the end. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 11/9/2024)

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