Subject: TA: Church on a tightrope of neutrality in
E. Timor
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 16:00:06 EDT
From: Joyo@aol.comThe Australian 28 August 99
Church on a tightrope of neutrality
>From SIAN POWELL in Dili
NUNS were out in the streets helping the wounded after Dili descended into chaos on
Thursday and priests gave sanctuary to the fleeing in their compounds.
For too long, the Catholic Church workers of East Timor have dealt with the miseries of
a people oppressed and yet this succour has in recent months been seen as evidence that
the church is not neutral; that it favours independence for East Timor.
The pro-autonomy groups, who want East Timor to stay with Indonesia, have roundly
criticised the church as biased. "We are all Catholics," said one pro-autonomy
spokesman, Mario Vieira, "the church should be neutral".
Father Rolando, a Salesian priest, said yesterday that his order had given sanctuary to
many people in their compound in recent months, including one young boy who was laid flat
on his back while booted militia members jumped on his prone body. He still has a large
blood clot in his chest.
Father Rolando said that if the Church were biased, it was only biased in favour of
people in trouble. "They are the oppressed, the Church has always taken the part of
the oppressed."
Yet Nobel laureate Carlos Ximenes Belo's opinion piece in the New York Times earlier
this week was one of the church's most strongly worded condemnations of Indonesia since
the brutality began 24 years ago.
"All along I have made it clear that the church is there for everyone and is not
to be used by any political faction," he wrote. "Yet I have concluded that only
international pressure on Indonesia's army can end the violence."
He went even further – calling for sanctions unless the military cut short its
reign of terror and saying Indonesia had to allow international peacekeepers into East
Timor.
It was a rare swipe at Indonesia. The East Timorese Catholic Church has been treading a
fine line for a decade, caught between Indonesian sensibilities on the one hand and real
humanitarian concerns regarding the welfare of the East Timorese people on the other.
There are more than 5 million Indonesian Catholics and whenever Bishop Belo reproaches
Indonesia, the word is that he is hauled into line. The official line from Rome has been
"softly, softly", said one East Timorese Catholic, although East Timor reports
directly to Rome, rather than being part of the Indonesian church.
When the Pope visited East Timor in 1989 he didn't kiss the ground, because it was
thought Indonesia might find it insulting.
The Jakarta-based pro-nuncio had strongly urged that the Pope celebrate mass in East
Timor in Indonesian, even though the liturgy has been in the local language of Tetum for
more than a decade. It was only when East Timorese priests and religious heard "Ami
aman" (Our Father in Tetum) they that could heave a sigh of relief.
Father Rolando dismisses critics who suggest the Vatican has not been tough enough.
"The Pope has always shown his interest in East Timor," he said, suggesting that
papal diplomacy was not always a public matter.
Regardless of the official Vatican line, the pro-autonomy movement's criticisms contain
an element of truth – a few priests openly support the National Council for East
Timorese Resistance (CNRT), the peak independence group.
One, Father Domingo Soares from Ermera, is known as Padre Maubere to the East Timorese
people, which loosely translates as the father of the resistance. He is an active member
of the CNRT and can often be seen in the council's Dili headquarters.
About one-third of the priests in East Timor, though, are Indonesian, and East Timorese
Catholics believe many quietly support autonomy.
A spokesman for the pro-autonomy Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice, Mario Vieira,
said he was concerned by the church's bias. "We have stated all our concerns, this is
not acceptable by the Vatican," he said.
"Pro-autonomy groups are also Catholic. The church must be neutral. Most of those
priests are in favour of independence. We have so many complaints from our followers. It's
another provocation, it can make a new conflict between those groups."
Mr Vieira said one of the outward indications of the church's partiality had been the
practice, in a few parishes, of charging pro-autonomy parishioners more for baptism
certificates – that were required for registration – than those in the
pro-independence flock. The Church flatly, and furiously, denied the allegation.
Yet even the Indonesian Defence Minister, General Wiranto, reportedly bought into the
argument, criticising the Catholic Church for favouring independence supporters.
Father Rolando, though, said that regardless of politics, the East Timorese people saw
the church as their defender: "The church is the church of the struggle".
The East Timorese Catholic Church has been the success story of Asia. Church statistics
record that in 1970, most people were animists. Less than one-third were Catholics. This
was a foreign church, which ran most of the few schools, and was the principal way of
transmitting Portuguese culture.
Now more than nine in 10 East Timorese are Catholic – perhaps because the church
has been the only East Timorese institution for more than two decades, the only
institution not wholly run by Indonesia.
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