1566 East Timor Hundreds brave threats to celebrate MHC
austraLasia 1566
Hundreds brave threats of rain, bullets to celebrate the feast of Mary
Help of Christians
COMORO-DILI: 29th May 2006 -- The procession from the church to
Our Lady’s grotto a kilometre away and the Mass in honor of Mary Help
of Christians went on as scheduled on 24th May. “I praise you for your
courage,” Fr. Manuel Fraile, the pastor of the Parish of Mary Help of
Christians in the Comoro area of the nation’s capital, told the
congregation, “because you came in spite of the overcast skies and the
happenings around us. In fact, when I consulted some of you earlier
this afternoon whether it would be wiser to cancel the procession and
Mass at the grotto and have a simple Mass inside the church, you said,
‘No, let us go ahead as scheduled, and we are ready make a little
sacrifice under the rain”.
Not only the procession and Mass went on
uneventfully, but also the procession going back to the church, the
reception and short program after the Mass. There was only one hitch:
Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva could not come to celebrate the Mass
because he was asked by the President of the Republic to attend a
meeting to discuss the worsening situation in the country.
Just the day before, there was a battle between the
regular army and some run-away soldiers at the eastern end of the
capital, which resulted in two deaths and several wounded. People
panicked and sought refuge in the different convents of religious
congregations. The refugees in Comoro, some of which have been staying
there since the 28th of April, increased. The burning of some houses by
goons, and unclear news of other incidents some kilometres west of the
city were reasons enough for people to keep to their refuge.
Some relief came later in the evening when the
national radio and television announced the decision of the government,
the diplomatic corp and the church to call in Peace Keeping Forces from
New Zealand, Australia, Portugal and Malaysia. The news said the
soldiers were already on the way to this troubled country. But still,
the refugees at Don Bosco said, “We will not leave Don Bosco until we
see the foreign soldiers with our own eyes and the situation under
their control.”
UPDATE: The city is calmer, but Australian troops
have requested their superiors and the Government in East Timor for a
strengthening of their rules of engagement to enable them to deal with
armed mobs who still roam the streets at will. Not a little of
the anger of the ordinary people is directed at Prime Minister Alkatiri
- the requests for him to step aside for a more widely acceptable
person (Ramos Horta has been suggested as one such) have been
insistent. meanwhile aid Agencies are predicting that unless the
situation is soon resolved, a humanitarian crisis will face the nation
and the world.
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