Subject: CNS: East Timor bishop urges U.S. Catholics
not to forget poor
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 12:06:27 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>JUSTICE-BELO LEAD Jul-19-99
(800 words) With photo. xxxn East Timor bishop urges U.S. Catholics not to forget poor
By Nancy Frazier O'Brien Catholic News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- The East Timor bishop who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize urged
American Catholics July 17 to "make sure that the poor and marginalized are not
forgotten but share in the bounty of the human family." Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo of
Dili, East Timor, addressed the National Catholic Gathering for Jubilee Justice on the
third day of a four-day meeting on the campus of the University of California at Los
Angeles. "You hold in your hands great power to affect the future of the world, for
good or evil," he said. "Too often, little action is taken to stop terrible
injustices." Bishop Belo made no reference to the upcoming U.N.-sponsored referendum
on East Timor's independence from Indonesia or to his own delayed departure from Dili
because of difficulties with his passport. When the delay had at first seemed likely to
cause the cancellation of Bishop Belo's talk at the Los Angeles conference, the president
of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of
Galveston-Houston, expressed "great sorrow and distress" and asked the State
Department to intervene.
But it appeared later that the delay was caused by a Singapore Airlines' interpretation
of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service regulations affecting those whose passports
are due to expire within six months, rather than an intervention by the Indonesian
government.
Bishop Belo recently said the vote on East Timor's independence from Indonesia, once
set for Aug. 8, should be postponed unless peace was quickly restored to the island. He
accused the Indonesian military of working to eliminate anyone who might vote for
independence.
But he was much more circumspect during his Los Angeles appearance, telling reporters
only that he hoped the elections would be "fair and free and that the people will act
responsibly."
Asked what he thought the results of the referendum might be, he said, "Why make a
hypothesis? We will wait for the final result."
Bishop Belo appeared mildly irritated with repeated questions from the reporters about
what had caused his delayed departure. "It was just a technical aspect," he
said. "Why do you keep asking? I am here now. It is over."
Asked whether his life had changed after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, he said,
"No. Life doesn't change. I have the same headaches, the same preoccupations for the
people."
Bishop Belo said his wish for the jubilee year 2000 was that "all of us would be
converted, that all good Catholics, good Christians would renew our lives as persons, as
communities and as a society."
He said a personal goal was to "try to teach the military people not to use their
guns against others but to defend justice and peace."
Bishop Belo's appearance at the jubilee justice gathering was part of a presentation on
seven themes of Catholic social teaching, with the bishop's theme being human rights and
responsibilities.
Another speaker, Mary Jane Owen, director of the National Catholic Office for Persons
with Disabilities, told jubilee participants she once considered it a "cruel
punishment" when she lost her sight but had since gotten over her "physiological
prejudices."
"Each day I thank God for the gift of human life," said Owen, who now is also
partially deaf and uses a wheelchair.
Criticizing those who "encourage us to evaluate life in terms of dollars and
cents," she said the church's teaching on the dignity and value of human life can
counter the "culture of death." Craig Kielburger, a 16-year-old Canadian who has
dedicated the past four years to fighting child labor and other abuses of children, spoke
about solidarity. "Do we believe all children are created equal?" he asked.
"If child labor is wrong for a middle-class American kid, why should it be
right," he said, for a child in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Kielburger recalled
being told by a Toronto radio talk show host at age 13 that he was "not normal"
because he "should be interested in sex, money and video games, certainly not child
labor." "We learn as young people that consumerism rules all," he said.
"But young people are desperately looking for moral leadership. The church has to
play that leadership role." Other speakers at the July 17 event were AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney, on the dignity of work and rights of workers; Andrew and Terri
Lyke, coordinators of marriage ministry for the African-American community in the
Archdiocese of Chicago, on the call to family, community and participation; Alexie M.
Torres, from Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice in the Bronx, on the option for the
poor and vulnerable; and Sister Miriam Mitchell, an environmental advocate and chancellor
of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, La., on care for God's creation.
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