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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