“Be careful: corruption can often enter our communities, our parishes.” This was Pope Francis’ impromptu address to the bishops and clergy of East Timor, met in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili. “Your country, too, rooted in a long Christian history, has Today we need a renewed impetus in evangelization – the Pontiff underlined -, so that the scent of the Gospel reaches everyone: a scent of reconciliation and peace after the painful years of war; a scent of compassion, which helps the poor to get back on their feet and inspires the commitment to raise the economic and social fortunes of the country; a scent of justice against corruption».
“I would like to say to the priests in particular: I have learned that the people address you with great affection, calling you ‘Amù, which is the most important title here, meaning ‘lord’. However, this should not make you feel superior to the people.” Thus Pope Francis, addressing the bishops and clergy of East Timor in the meeting in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili. “You come from the people, you were born from women of the people – the Pontiff added off the cuff -, do not forget the culture of the people from which you come, you are not superior to lead yourselves into the temptation of pride and power.; Do you know where it comes from? My grandmother used to say: the devil always enters through the pockets. You must not think of your ministry as a social prestige, acting like leaders who crush others”. For Bergoglio “There is a need for this surge of Gospel; and, therefore, there is a need for priests, religious and catechists who are passionate, prepared, creative. Creativity in the mission is necessary”.
The Pope then remarked: “Let us remember this: with perfume we anoint the feet of Christ, which are the feet of our brothers in faith, starting with the poorest: the privileged are the poorest.” “The priest is an instrument of blessing: he must never take advantage of his role, he must always bless, console, be a minister of compassion and a sign of God’s mercy. Perhaps the sign of all this is the poor priest: love poverty as your bride.”
“It is with great joy and honor that we welcome you among us, here in this cathedral which is the mother of all the Churches of East Timor. A cathedral whose memory is so dear to us because your predecessor, Pope Saint John Paul II, in the apostolic journey of 1989, during the difficult times in which the nation was subjugated, made the happy gesture of blessing it.” Thus addressed Pope Francis Msgr. Norberto of Amaralbishop of Maliana and president of the Episcopal Conference of East Timor, in his greeting address during the meeting of the Pontiff with the bishops and clergy in the cathedral of Dili. “After so many years of suffering, we have recovered the Nation – he said -, which has managed to get up and stay standing, reborn from the ashes of destruction in the second millennium of our history. A new and small Nation, only 14,875 square kilometers, with a population of 1,340,000 inhabitants, a Catholic community of over 1,300,000 faithful, almost 98% of the population, and a growing youth. East Timor is the nation with the highest percentage of Catholics in Asia and, one could say, in the world”. “It is located in the Far East – emphasized Msgr. do Amaral -. When His Holiness was elected Pope, he said of himself that the cardinals called him from the periphery of the world. Here is a nation that is on the periphery of the world and, one might say, at the ends of the earth.” “Here it is called to be salt and light,” he added. “And when, Your Holiness, on the occasion of our first ad Limina visit, you told us ‘let your faith be your culture’, we have kept these words and to strengthen this appeal, here they are as the motto of the visit of His Holiness to East Timor.”