Alberto Ricardo da Silva

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alberto Ricardo da Silva

Alberto Ricardo da Silva (born April 24, 1943 in Vila General Carmona , Portuguese Timor ; † April 2, 2015 in Dili , East Timor ) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dili in East Timor.

Life

Silva attended the primary school of the Colégio Nuno Alvares Pereira in Soibada . One of his classmates there was the later politician and freedom fighter Nicolau dos Reis Lobato . Then he went to the Nossa Senhora da Fatima seminary in Dare . On August 15, 1972, Silva received the sacrament of ordination . In Dili he studied at the seminary and was then sent to Macau to study philosophy . Silva continued his theology studies in the seminary of Leiria in Portugal . He later received a scholarship for spiritual theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome .

Silva worked as a spiritual guide, later he was rector of the seminary in Dare and vicar general of Dili (1980–1992).

In 1991, as the parish pastor of the Church of Santo António de Motael , Silva offered Timorese students shelter during their campaigns for the country's independence against the Indonesian occupation. Indonesian security forces and militias surrounded the church in late October . The activist Sebastião Gomes was shot and bled to death. Silva held a funeral mass for Gomes on November 12th. The funeral procession to the Santa Cruz Cemetery turned into a peaceful demonstration with several thousand participants. The Indonesian military opened fire on the demonstrators at the cemetery, killing at least 271 people. Filming of the Santa Cruz massacre sparked outrage around the world and put the East Timor conflict back on the political agenda. Silva was repeatedly interrogated by military security forces in the following weeks. He was accused of being the brains behind the demonstrations, even though he emphasized that he was only interested in his religious duties as a priest and that this would include Timorese of all political directions and also Christian Indonesians. Even so, he was threatened with jail and worse several times. To get him out of danger, the church sent Silva to Rome to study. Only years later did he return to East Timor. From 2000 Silva was rector of the Peter and Paul seminary in Dili.

Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Dili on February 27, 2004. The episcopal ordination donated him the Bishop of Baucau , Basílio do Nascimento , who headed the Diocese of Dili from 2002 until he took office as Apostolic Administrator on May 2nd of the same year. Co- consecrators were the Archbishop of Kupang , Peter Turang , and Auxiliary Bishop Tomás Pedro Barbosa da Silva Nunes from Lisbon .

In 2014, Silva was treated for a brain tumor in Australia . On February 9, 2015, Pope Francis accepted his early resignation. The reason was health problems. On April 2, 2015, Silva died at 9 p.m. local time in the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares , where he had been hospitalized since March 22.

Web links

Commons : Alberto Ricardo da Silva  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Zenit: Pope appoints new bishop for East Timor , March 8, 2004  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 3, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zenit.org  
  2. ^ Timor-Leste / Biografia do Presidente Nicolau dos Reis Lobato , accessed on December 31, 2012
  3. ↑ George W. Bush Institute: Bishop Alberto Ricardo Da Silva: Santa Cruz Massacre , The Freedom Collection , accessed April 3, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b Notícias ao minuto: Óbito Morreu ex-bispo de Díli, Alberto Ricardo da Silva , April 2, 2015 , accessed on April 2, 2015.
  5. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo di Díli (Timor Orientale). In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , February 9, 2015, accessed February 9, 2015 (Italian).
predecessor Office successor
Basílio do Nascimento Bishop of Dili
2004–2015 		Virgílio do Carmo da Silva
personal data
SURNAME Silva, Alberto Ricardo there
BRIEF DESCRIPTION East Timorese clergyman, Roman Catholic bishop of Dili
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Vila General Carmona , Portuguese Timor
DATE OF DEATH 2nd April 2015
Place of death Dili , East Timor