When Pope Francis becomes the first pope to visit independent East Timor, he will confront a clergy mired in child abuse scandals that have been largely ignored by the staunchly Catholic country’s independence heroes.
These include Nobel Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Jimenes Belo, who helped liberate Asia’s youngest nation from Indonesian occupation but who was secretly punished by the Vatican after being accused of sexually abusing young children for decades.
The 87-year-old Pope is expected to speak out on the issue of child abuse when he arrives in the former Portuguese colony on Monday (September 9, 2024) during his Asia-Pacific tour.
“We urge His Holiness to encourage the leaders and people of Timor-Leste to take more effective measures to prevent sexual abuse,” the Timor-Leste NGO Forum, a civil society coalition, said in a letter to the pope on Wednesday (September 4, 2024).
BishopAccountability.org, a center for documenting abuse in the Catholic Church, also urged Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the head of the Vatican’s sexual abuse commission, to “urge” the pope to “be a champion of victims” during his visit.
Catholic-majority East Timor is one of many countries long plagued by the global scourge of child abuse by clergy shrouded in secrecy.
In 2002, Pope John Paul II accepted the sudden resignation of Bishop Belo, then head of the Church in East Timor, who had also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.
The Vatican said this was done for health reasons but gave no further explanation.
She was then allowed to be sent as a missionary to Mozambique, where she worked with children before moving to Portugal.
The Vatican secretly banned the bishop in 2020 after he was accused of sexually abusing underage boys over a 20-year period until 2002.
It also banned Bishop Belo from having any contact with children or East Timor, and he was said to have formally accepted these conditions.
Only when the Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer reported the sanctions in 2022, including testimony from a victim who said she was raped by Bishop Bello, did the Vatican make it public.
The author of the Dutch magazine report says the allegations regarding Bishop Belo became known in 2002.
The Pope later said that the decision to let Bishop Bello retire rather than suffer the consequences was made when viewpoints differed.
Wide Support
Bishop received the Nobel Prize for defending human rights during the Indonesian occupation, which lasted more than two decades.
He is revered at home for sheltering young protesters and saving their lives. This has helped him retain strong support among the country’s 1.3 million people, 98% of whom are Catholic.
“We feel like we’ve lost him. We miss him,” said Maria Dadi, president of the East Timor National Youth Council. AFP,
“Because at the end of the day, they really contributed to the struggle in Timor-Leste.”
In another case, deposed US pastor Richard Daschbach was found guilty in 2021 of abusing orphaned, underprivileged girls.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but received support at the highest levels of Timorese society.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao sparked controversy last year when he celebrated Daschbach’s birthday and ate cake with the convicted paedophile. He also attended his trial.
Many in the country want Bishop Bello to return for the Pope’s visit.
“We are very sad at Bishop Belo’s absence,” said Francisco Amaral da Silva, a 58-year-old academic. “The government and the Catholic Church should invite him.”
East Timor’s presidential office did not respond to a request for comment. President Jose Ramos-Horta has said the Vatican should handle the punishment for Bishop Belo.
limited price
During his stay in the capital Dili, the Pope will meet Catholic devotees, children, Jesuits and preside over a large prayer meeting.
But it is still unclear whether he will take up the cases, which have stunned observers in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The pope’s schedule does not include meeting victims, and the Vatican made no comment before he left Rome. But he may include the topic in one of his speeches, which would be a strong signal.
The pope can also meet with victims privately, as he has done before, most recently when he visited Portugal in 2023.
But victims’ advocates said the pope should acknowledge sexual violence committed by church officials against East Timorese children, including Bishop Belo.
“People abused by Bishop Belo and other priests will expect a public statement from the pope on the church’s continuing failure to deal with its wayward priests,” said Tony Gribbon, founder of the Northern Ireland-based Dromore Survivors Group.
Mr Gribben said the meeting would be of “limited value”, citing the pope’s apology to abuse victims during a visit to Ireland in 2018. “The event was a well-crafted PR exercise,” he said.
“But since then, it’s been business as usual.”
Published – September 09, 2024 12:01 pm IST