DILI (TIMOR-LESTE)
Euronews [Lyon, France]
September 8, 2024
In 2002, the head of Timor-Leste’s church abruptly resigned and moved to Mozambique amidst claims he sexually abused young boys over a 20-year period.
Pope Francis has been called on to address child sexual abuse in the Catholic church during his upcoming visit to Timor-Leste.
The request, made by influential non-profit organisation BishopAccountability.org, asked one of the United States’ most significant archdioceses Cardinal Sean O’Malley to persuade the pope to speak out against sexual abuse during his trip.
Two prominent Catholic figures in Timor-Leste have been at the centre of sexual abuse allegations, including Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who was previously the head of the country’s Catholic Church. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 and is largely celebrated in Timor-Leste for being instrumental in the country gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002.
But Belo abruptly resigned the same year, citing poor health, and was sent to Mozambique to work as a missionary before moving to Portugal.
He was secretly sanctioned by the Vatican from having contact with children or Timor-Leste following allegations that he sexually abused underage boys over a 20-year period, which were eventually made public and acknowledged by the Vatican in 2022.
BishopAccountability.org noted that Belo still enjoys popularity in Timor-Leste, with state officials such as President José Ramos-Horta publicly praising him and welcoming him back to the country.
The church in Timor-Leste has largely downplayed or doubted claims against Melo and others made against a popular American missionary who confessed to molesting young girls. Many instead focus on their roles saving lives during the country’s bloody struggle against Indonesia for independence.
Pope Francis’ trip to Timor-Leste will be his first to the country. However, the Vatican has not yet commented on whether he will meet victims of abuse or mention it directly as he has done previously.
Some 98% of Timor-Leste’s 1.3 million people are Catholic, making it the most Catholic country in the world outside the Vatican.
Their heroic status in certain parts of Asia, where the society tends to confer much power on adults and authority figures, helps explain why the bishops are still revered while elsewhere in the world, such cases are met with outrage, said Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability.
“Bishops are powerful, and in developing countries where the church is dominant, they are inordinately powerful,” Barrett Doyle said.