Alberto Araújo

Alberto Araújo (born August 14, 1938 in Aileu , Portuguese Timor , † August 16, 2020 in Lisbon , Portugal ) was an East Timorese clergyman, philosopher and independence activist.

Career

Araújo studied from 1955 to 1961 at the Nossa Senhora da Fatima seminary in Dare and from 1961 to 1966 at the São José Jesuit seminary in Macau . From 1967 to 1973 he worked in the Mission in Same in Timor before he began to study philosophy in 1973 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome , thanks to a grant from the Government of the Portuguese Timor Province and the Diocese of Dili . Araújo received his doctorate in 1983. In the Vatican he should have a close relationship with Pope Paul VI. (1963–1978). According to the apostolic administrator Martinho da Costa Lopes , the Vatican is said to have designated Araújo as the first East Timorese as bishop of Dili; Indonesia , which occupied Portuguese Timor in 1975, vetoed these personnel, so that Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo became the new apostolic administrator instead . Araújo then left Rome in disagreement and went to Portugal, where he first graduated in philosophy from the University of Lisbon . He became a teacher at the Escola Secundária Stuart de Carvalhais in Massamá ( Queluz ) and then taught as a professor of philosophy in the secondary sector.

In 1983/85 Araújo founded the Associação Timorense with a few friends , committed himself to training East Timorese cadres and campaigned against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, which lasted until 1999. He was also a member of the board of the Plataforma Internacional da Sociedade Civil da Diáspora Lusófona (Piscdil). In 1998 Araújo took part in the first national East Timorese congress in Peniche and became a member of the National Political Commission of the Conselho Nacional de Resistência Timorense (CNRT), the umbrella organization of the East Timorese resistance.

In the last years of his life, Araújo, with the Academy of Sciences (Academia das Ciências de Lisboa) and the Piscdil, organized congresses, conferences and debates aimed at East Timorese in the diaspora and their return to their homeland and their contribution to the development of East Timor had as a topic. In 2012, on the 10th anniversary of East Timor’s independence , Araújo founded the Comissão Organizadora de Conferências e de Congressos (COCC TD 2012), which united all East Timorese associations in diaspora and supporters.

family

Alberto Araújo leaves behind a daughter. He was the uncle of Basílio do Nascimento , the Bishop of Baucau .

Honors

In 2013 Araújo received honorary membership of the Círculo de Escritores Moçambicanos.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Lusa: Morreu Alberto Araújo, fundador da Associação Timorense em Portugal , August 17, 2020 , accessed on August 17, 2020.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Círculo de Escritores Moçambicanos na Diáspo: Alberto Araújo , accessed on August 17, 2020.
3. ↑ Ben Kiernan: Genocide and Resistance in Southeast Asia: Documentation, Denial, and Justice in Cambodia and East Timor , pp. 179/180, 2008.