austraLasia
1429
Cardinal
George
Pell tours East Timor with 'two
remarkable Salesians'
SYDNEY: 5th February
2006 -- Cardinal Pell has written the following for a Sunday newspaper
due for publication today. austraLasia has the
text independently and offers it for those who will have no access to Sydney
newspapers.
"For many Australians, East Timor is their
favourite Asian country. Home to one million people, this tiny
half-island, 656km from Darwin, has a tragic history. It was colonized by
the Portuguese in 1570, and ruled by the Indonesians from 1975-1999 until it
voted for independence in an Indonesian-sponsored referendum. Then
Indonesian soldiers and especially a militia of Timorese they sponsored, killed
about 2000 people and systematically destroyed 80% of the public buildings and
infrastructure. This was the most recent chapter in a dismal
history.
I have just spent 10 days on this beautiful
island, now lush and green during the rainy season, being taken around by two
remarkable Salesians, Brother Michael Lynch, a Melbourne man, Harvard graduate
and former headmaster, and Brother Marcal Lopes, the Timorese principal of
Fatumaca Technical College.
It would be wonderful to
report that everywhere conditions are better, but this is not the
case.
Naturally the situation is better than those
terrible days when the Australian soldiers played a leading role with the United
Nations force in restoring peace and order. Dili has many cars, children
on bicycles, many neat in school uniforms, while there are 19 tertiary
institutes in the capital. Inflation too is low, but the situation is bad,
especially in the country areas.
In many parts, the
peasants have no money at all and exist by bartering or subsist on the food they
produce. In one parish we visited, the priest, with Australian help, is
feeding 2000 youngsters five times a week, while many teachers and catechists
have not been paid for months.
Baucau, the nation's second
city, has power from 6.00 pm to about midnight, while the road system, built by
the Indonesians, is steadily deteriorating. We passed sections of road
which had disappeared months ago, marked by stone and bushes on the
approaches.
Despite all this the good humour of most people was
infectious. While there were 20 days of peaceful demonstrations against
the government last April, there was no violence and no police
over-reaction. It was democracy at work.
We were
present for a wonderfully happy occasion at Lospalos, the easternmost centre on
the island, when I started the first of nine heats for the Don Bosco Cup; large
ponies raced four times around a track, ridden with great skill by jockeys with
no saddles no stirrups and watched by a cheering, noisy crowd of about
3,000.
East Timor has a considerable network of helpers
around Australia; not big business but groups from parishes, State and Catholic
schools, service groups. Their contributions do make a difference in a
country which is perhaps the poorest in Asia.
I was
pleased to support and visit many wonderful workers for development and justice;
locals, Australian volunteers and Australian soldiers.
But
it was great to return to a hot shower after washing with cold water from a
tub!"
+ George Cardinal
Pell,
Archbishop of
Sydney
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