When the Vatican acknowledged in 2022 that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning, East Timorese independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo had sexually abused young boys, it appeared that the global clergy sexual abuse scandal that has compromised the Catholic Church’s credibility around the world had finally arrived in Asia’s newest country.
A billboard welcoming Pope Francis stands above a mural honoring Bishop Belo and three others as national heros in Dili, East Timor , Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. The painting of Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is displayed at the Timorese Resistance Museum in Dili, East Timor , Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024.
Despite the official acknowledgement, many in East Timor still don’t believe it, like Dili university student Martinha Goveia, who is still expecting Belo will show up to be at Francis’ side during his upcoming visit. Timorese officials refused to answer questions about the Belo case, but there’s been no attempt to avoid mentioning him, with a giant billboard in Dili welcoming Pope Francis, whose visit starts Sept. 9, placed right above a mural honoring Belo and three others as national heroes.
Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize for his bravery in drawing international attention to Indonesian human rights abuses during the conflict, and American missionary Richard Daschbach was widely celebrated for his role in helping save lives in the struggle for independence. In 2018, as rumors built against Daschbach, the priest confessed in a letter to church authorities to abusing young girls from at least 1991 to 2012.convicted in 2021
There, he has said, he spent his time “teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people.” Today he lives in Portugal. The church’s role is even enshrined in the preamble to the young country’s constitution, which says that the Catholic Church “has always been able to take on the suffering of all the people with dignity, placing itself on their side in the defense of their most fundamental rights.”
“We don’t hear a lot of people ask about bishop Belo because he left the country... twenty years ago,” da Silva said.
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