“Go out to the whole world and preach
the God News to all creation†(Mk 16:15).
The first evangelizers of East Timor (in the middle of the 16th Century) were Portuguese Dominicans. After a long absence, the Dominican friars have just been asked by the Bishop of the Diocese of Dili to “please, renew the work†of the first Dominican apostles of East Timor. This new apostolic beginning will be, according to the Bishop, “a great blessing to the Timorese Church.â€
Bishop Dom Albert Ricardo da Silva spoke these words to Fr. Javier González, OP, Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of Our Lady of the Rosary, after he handed over personally to him a letter of petition on June 5, 2012 at his episcopal house asking the good bishop to allow the Province to establish a house in East Timor. Fr. Javier, accompanied on this occasion by Fr. Fausto Gómez, OP, Regent of Studies of the same Province, was thus carrying out the desire of Fr. Bruno Cadoré, OP, Master of the Order of Preachers. Fr. Bruno wrote to Fr. Javier on November 28, 2011: Please, “take the responsibility in bringing the presence of the Order to this land of East Timor.†By the way, two Congregations of Dominican Sisters are already present in East Timor, namely, the Congregation of the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary and the Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of Portugal. During their stay in East Timor, Frs. Javier and Fausto stayed at the Orphanage in Bidau, Dili, run by the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary. They also visited the Portuguese Dominican Sisters in mountainous and beautiful Remixio (about three hours by car from Dili).
In his official letter of June 6, 2012 to Fr. Javier, Bishop Alberto Ricardo accepted the request to establish a religious house of the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary. The main task of this community, the Bishop added, will be pastoral service to the city of Betano, South of East Timor. For this purpose, a new parish – the first – shall be created in this promising town of over fifteen thousand people. At present, there is a chapel under the care of the Parish of Same (a city between Dili and Betano). Once the appropriate plans of the new project are “fixed,†the bishop will “conclude the permission.†Let us quote some main lines from the significant letter of Bishop da Silva:
The presence of the Dominican Order in our Diocese of Dili will be very helpful to our pastoral work since there are still many places that need pastoral assistance. The people of Betano have been longing to receive pastoral assistance permanently due to many challenges to their faith from (many) kinds of international religious sects and the need to live better their faith by regularly attending the sacraments. I hereby recommend that your congregation be established there. I hereby accept your request to establish a religious house of the Dominican Province of Our Lady of the Rosary in our Diocese. We will conclude the permission by our decree when all plans are fixed. I consider this engagement a vital and important contribution to the apostolic life and vitality of the Church in this Diocese for the greater glory of God and the good of souls.
In the cordial meeting with the Bishop, the issue of the philosophical and theological formation at the Major Seminary came up. The Bishop invited Fr. Javier and Fr. Fausto to contribute with professors, in particular of Sacred Scriptures and Moral Theology, to the academic and pastoral formation of the many seminarians in East Timor.
The immediate task of the Provincial now is to present the concrete plan of action to the Council of the Province; to inform the Master of the Order about the whole process, and to look for members of the Province willing and able to carry out the urgent task requested by the Bishop of Dili. Hopefully and prayerfully, the Province and the Holy Spirit will find three or more members ready to break new ground in East Timor and begin serving the local people from a parish in Betano. This challenging project of the Order of Preachers spearheaded by the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary will be ideally assisted, as the Master of the Order wishes, by members from other Dominican Provinces, in particular from the Australian and Philippine Provinces, that have already accepted the challenge, and also perhaps from the Portuguese and Brazilian Provinces. Doubtlessly, East Timor, a very young country where the majority of its people are young, shall become a place of Dominican evangelization and a source of vocations for the Order and for the Church.
East Timor, or Timor-Leste, is an independent Democratic Republic, member of the United Nations since 2002. It is a developing country with great resources – material and spiritual – and a promising future. The languages of the country are Portuguese, Tetun and Bahasa. The majority of its one million and two hundred thousand people are Catholics. There are beside Dili two other Dioceses, namely, Baucau and Maliana.
Certainly, East Timor is calling!
“Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spiritâ€
(Mt 28:18)