Martinho da Costa Lopes

Martinho da Costa Lopes (* 1918 in Portuguese Timor ; † February 27, 1991 in Lisbon , Portugal ) was Apostolic Administrator of Dili ( East Timor ).

Life

Lopes grew up during a time when the Roman Catholic Church in the colony of Portuguese Timor was working closely with the colonial government, but had less connection with the people. He ordained a priest in 1948 after graduating from the Roman Catholic Seminary in Macau .

For many years he was a priest in Portuguese Timor and at times a member of the Portuguese National Assembly in Lisbon. In 1959, as envoy for the Portuguese government, he was an eyewitness to the suppression of the Viqueque rebellion against the colonial rulers in the southeast of the island. Lopes watched the numerous public executions. Around 1,000 people were killed in the uprising.

In the early 1970s, Lopes took over the editing of Seara magazine , which was published by the Diocese of Dili . Under him, the paper became a mouthpiece for the political interests of the Timorese. Marí Alkatiri , José Ramos-Horta , Nicolau Lobato , Abílio Araújo and Francisco Xavier do Amaral wrote articles for the magazine, among others .

In 1975 Lopes became Vicar General of Dom José Joaquim Ribeiro , the Bishop of Dili, when Indonesia occupied the country. At the time, only about 30 percent of East Timor's population was Catholic. After Ribeiro resigned in May 1977, dismayed by the killing in the country, Lopes became the Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Dili and thus responsible for all of East Timor. He was directly subordinate to the Pope . On April 7, at the suggestion of Lopes, the Vatican decreed that Tetum , the lingua franca of the region, became the official language of the Catholic liturgy in East Timor. For several years, Lopes worked with the Indonesian military to record allegations of atrocities and famine. Eventually, however, he noticed that his complaints were being ignored, so in 1981 he changed his tactics. He began making his complaints public by writing letters overseas which were then published in newspapers. The world public first became aware of the events in East Timor through the media. Lopes particularly denounced the forced eviction of 50,000 men and boys who had to fight against the East Timorese freedom movement FRETILIN . He later accused the Indonesian army of war crimes, including the massacre of 500 women and children at St. Anthony's Shrine in Lacluta on September 7, 1981. The military then issued a sharp reprimand and forced him to leave Dili in October 1981. Lopes said: "I feel it is an irrepressible need to tell the whole world about the genocide in Timor, so that when we die, at least the world knows that we died standing up." On November 19, 1981, he denounced Catholic at a meeting Bishops with the Indonesian ruler Suharto renewed the atrocities of the Indonesian armed forces.

Lopes continued to report on the extreme famine in the resettlement camps and supported his priests who wanted to help the population. He criticized the USA for its military aid to Indonesia. Lopes desperately asked Pope John Paul II for a special audience, which the Vatican refused because it was neither timely nor necessary. For Lopes this was a hard blow. In another letter to Australia , he accused the Indonesian military of mass murder and predicted widespread famine if food was not delivered immediately. His prognosis turned out to be correct. Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam called the bishop a liar trying to stir up trouble. Whitlam's allegations were controversial and disseminated through agencies so that Indonesia could no longer tolerate Lopes' actions. The papal pro- nuncio in Jakarta is said to have been moved by an Indonesian general to recommend that the pope recall Lopes as apostolic administrator. Lopes was retired on May 12, 1983. The decision was made over the heads of the East Timorese clergy, and many members protested to the Pope. Lopes left his home country to live in Lisbon. On August 12, 1988, Lopes was a member of an East Timorese delegation that was allowed to audition before the United Nations . Lopes died on February 27, 1991 in Lisbon. His successor in office was Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo , who continued Lopes' fight against the crimes of Indonesia and for this he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, together with the later East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta . Belo's share of the prize money went to the Peace and Democracy Dom Martinho da Costa Lopes Foundation .

Today East Timor is independent and over 95% of the population are Catholic. The gains were mostly seen during Lopes' tenure.

Honors

The Avenida Dom Martinho Lopes and the Ordem Dom Martinho Lopes in Dili are named after Lopes .

See also

• History of East Timor

literature

• Rowena Lennox: Fighting Spirit of East Timor: The Life of Martinho da Costa Lopes . ISBN 1-85649-833-6 .

supporting documents

• New York Times: Death report from Costa Lopes
• ETAN: Nobel Peace Prize for Bishop Belo
• Cathnews: Whitlam role in ousting East Timor Catholic leader
• Timor-Leste Memória

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Part 3: The History of the Conflict" (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
2. ^ The Special Committee on decolonization on the morning of 12 August considered the question of Gibraltar and East Timor. ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

predecessor	Office	successor
José Joaquim Ribeiro	Apostolic Administrator of Dili 1977–1983	Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo