In 2002 the head of East Timor’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 East Timor.
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 major Catholic figures in East Timor have been at the centre of sexual abuse allegations, including Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo who was previously the head of East Timor’s Catholic Church. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 and is largely celebrated in East Timor 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 East Timor 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 East Timor with state officials such as the President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, publicly praising Belo and welcoming him back to the country.
The church in East Timor 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 East Timor 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 East Timor’s 1.3 million people are Catholic, making it the most Catholic country in the world outside the Vatican.
Their heroic status, and societal factors in Asia, where the culture 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.
