Pope goes to East Timor, where scandal shadows his church's heroic past

Dili, East Timor: Banners of Pope Francis had been unfurled across Dili, the capital of East Timor, its streets scrubbed and its walls freshly painted. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to pour in to catch a glimpse of the man, who lands Monday. But in some corners of the city, the excitement had turned into misery.

Joana Fraga Ximenes stared at rubble in the district of Bidau that had been her home and a street stall, from which she sold sundries. Earlier this year, she said, authorities had given her three days to move because the pope was going to be driven down her street. Eventually, they sent bulldozers.

"Why do we have to hide the poverty?" Ximenes, 42, said over the weekend. "This is reality. The pope is not coming to see good things in Timor-Leste. The pope is here to see our real lives."

Francis' two-day visit, the third stop on his Asia-Pacific tour, is a momentous occasion for East Timor, or Timor-Leste as it is known in Portuguese, one of two official languages. Nearly all of the 1.3 million people here are Catholic.

The church played an important part in East Timor's struggle for independence, but that history has been stained by its clergy abuse scandal. One of the heroes of the independence cause, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, has been accused of sexually abusing children decades ago.

East Timor is one of the world's youngest nations -- it became a sovereign state in 2002, after decades of occupation by Indonesia -- and one of its poorest. More than two-fifths of its people live in poverty, and a large majority depend on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. This is why critics are sharply questioning the stagecraft involved in welcoming the pope.

Hundreds of people like Ximenes have been forcibly evicted, residents and activists said, to ensure that there are fewer eyesores along the pontiff's route. The government is spending $12 million on the visit, three times as much as it spends per year on efforts to increase food production. (The official currency is the US dollar.)

"I don't think the pope himself will agree with this budget," said Josh Trindade, a former government adviser.

President Jose Ramos-Horta denied that the government was evicting people because of the papal visit. He said those people were squatters and unauthorized street vendors.

"They were the ones who were asked to leave repeatedly. Many left, and there was compensation always," he said in an interview.

But an April 4 letter from the Ministry of Public Works to communities like Ximenes's described the matter as urgent because of the pope's impending visit.

"When he comes and visits a country, he wants to see the struggles, but they are trying to hide the faces of the people," said Pedrito Vieira, the national coordinator of the Land Network, a human rights group.

Marquita Catarina da Silva, 45, said she had received no compensation after her shop was demolished in Bidau. "I told them: 'The pope is not visiting this place, he's going to the stadium. Why are you demolishing it?'"

A Tainted Hero

Clergy abuse has also cast a shadow over the pope's visit. Last week, the Timor-Leste NGO Forum, an umbrella organization of 400 nonprofit and civil society groups, wrote an open letter to Francis, asking him to "encourage the leaders and the people of Timor-Leste to take more effective measures to prevent sexual abuse."

One prominent offender was Richard Daschbach, an American missionary in East Timor who admitted abusing children for decades. He was defrocked by the Vatican and, in 2021, convicted and sentenced in East Timor to 12 years in prison.

But the most infamous case here involves Belo, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 along with Ramos-Horta for trying to peacefully resolve the conflict with Indonesia. The Nobel committee said the bishop had risked his life to protect Timorese people.

In 2022, the Vatican acknowledged that it had, in 2020, imposed "disciplinary restrictions" on Belo, who had been forbidden to have "contact with minors."

That public admission was made a day after a Dutch magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, published an explicit account of abuse by two of the bishop's alleged victims.

The church said it had investigated allegations that Belo had raped and abused teenage boys decades ago in East Timor. The bishop, who is said to be working as a priest in Mozambique, could not be reached for comment.

Asked whether he thought the pope should talk about Belo during his visit, Ramos-Horta said the matter had "already been addressed years ago by the Vatican." He said any restitution had already been made between the church and the victims, who he said did not want to bring their cases to court.

"Bishop Belo is still very much revered by the majority of the people because of his role in the past, a lot of courage in sheltering people, protecting people," Ramos-Horta said.

In the wake of the news about Belo, many Timorese people were angry -- but the fury was directed at the alleged victims. A journalist who tried to pursue the allegations received death threats, according to Trindade.

"When a child is raped in a devoutly Catholic country, and the predator is both a bishop and national hero, survivors will feel especially helpless and intimidated into staying silent," Anne Barrett Doyle, a co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks allegations of sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergy worldwide, said in a statement.

A Dominant Church

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, just as it became free of colonial rule by Portugal. During the decades of Indonesian occupation, 200,000 people are estimated to have died from hunger, disease and political violence. The church offered protection to many people who were on the run. That period catalyzed a surge in conversions to Catholicism.

The last time East Timor hosted a pontiff was in 1989, when Pope John Paul II arrived in the occupied territory and admonished Indonesia to respect human rights there. Many Timorese believe his visit helped put their country in the international spotlight and was a pivotal moment in their quest for independence.

Today, the church still plays an outsized role in society and politics. The government budget includes millions of dollars for the country's three Catholic dioceses. Household disputes are typically resolved first in the church.

On Sunday, adults and children lined the streets of Dili rehearsing a welcome song for Francis. Government workers were still putting the final touches on decorative structures. A horde of people surrounded a pickup truck selling Francis memorabilia.

"It's a blessing for the pope to visit Timor-Leste," said Fernanda de Jesus, 39, who bought a hat with a picture of Francis emblazoned on it. "Although this is the second pope visit, we never felt it as an independent country. This time, it is different."