Santo Antonio de Motael

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Santo António Church in Motael

In the Portuguese style built Roman Catholic Church Santo António de Motael in Dili , the capital of East Timor , is Anthony of Lisbon dedicated. It is considered the oldest Christian church in East Timor, even if the current building dates from 1955. It is located in the Motael district ( Vera Cruz Administration Office ).

Mass and celebrations

In the church

The masses are held in Portuguese and Tetum .

Every year a procession takes place on June 13th in honor of the patron saint of the church. There is also an outdoor market and in the evening there is the Marcha de Santo Antonio (“Saint Anthony's March”), where children wear traditional Portuguese clothes and bring fruit and pets to the statue of Saint Anthony.

history

The church in 1908

The Motael district was the center of the European population of Dilis during the Portuguese colonial era. Motael's first church was built around 1800 and was made entirely of perishable material, not stone. Father Jorge Barros was their first pastor. Construction of the first stone church building on this site began in 1901. The construction work was interrupted several times due to financial problems, stopped in 1910 and only resumed later. The exact date of completion is not known, however there are records dating back to 1937 relating to a completed church. Originally it already had the pointed arched windows and the pointed arched portal of today's building, but still had no bell tower and no portico.

During the Japanese air raids on Dili in World War II on February 19 and 20, 1942, the church was hit by bombs and partially destroyed. The reconstruction took place in 1955 with the help of financial means made available by the construction plan I Plano de Fomento Ultramarino (1953-1958), with the bell tower and portico in their current form. The nave was enlarged on this occasion. Until the inauguration of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in 1989, Motael Church served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Dili .

In the turmoil before the Portuguese withdrew from Timor in 1975, some FRETILIN cadres saw the church as an insulting icon of colonialism. Together with some renegade local soldiers from the Portuguese armed forces, they wanted to occupy the church and drove to Motael on trucks. But only a few hundred meters before the leader of the group fell from the truck and broke his collarbone . This was seen as a divine intervention and deviated from the plan of the occupation.

On September 4, 1990, Pastor Alberto Ricardo da Silva erected a statue of St. Anthony next to the church for the 50th anniversary of the Diocese of Dili .

Young independence activists tried to demonstrate on October 27, 1991 against the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975-1999). When the Indonesian security forces persecuted them, parish priest Alberto Ricardo da Silva offered them protection in the church. During the night, the Indonesians stormed the church and shot at the activist Sebastião Gomes , who then bled to death. A demonstration on November 12, 1991 after the memorial service for Gomes led to the Santa Cruz massacre , in which at least 271 people were killed by Indonesian security forces.

After the riots in East Timor in 2006, a camp was set up at the church to provide shelter for refugees.

Web links

Commons : Santo António de Motael  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Timor Tourism: Motael Church  ( 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 September 16, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / timor-tourism.tl  
  2. ↑ Património de Influência Portuguesa: Igreja de Santo António de Motael , accessed on December 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ Património Arquitectónico de Origem Portuguesa de Díli , p. 47 , accessed on December 20, 2016.
  4. ↑ Tony Wheeler, Xanana Gusmao, Kristy Sword-Gusmao: East Timor. Lonely Planet, London 2004, ISBN 1-74059-644-7
  5. ^ Arnold S. Kohen: From the Place of the Dead , 1999. ISBN 0745950108
  6. ↑ David Hicks: Rhetoric and the Decolonization and Recolonization of East Timor , p. 128, limited preview in the Google book search
  7. ↑ John Birmingham: Australia's Complicity in the East Timor Tragedy: Appeasing Jakarta ff, p 33, ISBN 1863953868
  8. ↑ Excerpts from the Testimony of Allan Nairn before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, February 27, 1992 , accessed February 5, 2013

Coordinates: 8 ° 33 '3.4 "  S , 125 ° 34" 14.1 "  E