austraLasia #1576

Bishop Visits refugee school and camp
(note: There is a backup of other news, since we have been running the Dili story almost non-stop now for a week - but it still has 'legs' as they say in the jargon, because various readers write in with questions or comments, so it keeps running!  Nobody would be keener for things to get back to normality than the Salesian Family in Dili! Hopefully sdb.org will be able to run a few photos)

COMORO, 7 June 2006 --At 10:30 this morning, Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili made a surprise visit to the refugee school which was just organised yesterday. In his address to the 500 students and teachers (up 200 from yesterday and still climbing!), who were quickly assembled as soon as the headmaster knew that the bishop had come, he first expressed the Holy Father, Benedict XVI’s, concern for the Timorese people. (May 31’st General Audience). The bishop congratulated the students and teachers for their desire to do something good, namely prepare themselves for the future, and praised their intelligence in having chosen to do the right thing.

    He said he was very sorry and ashamed before the world at what had happened and was happening: violence, burning and destroying houses, fostering ethnic tension between east and west. “"This is a very bad thing, and we should not let it develop. We are one people; there is no east and west. And I say this especially because my father is from the east and my mother is from the west"!”

    He also informed the students and teachers that the Church has condemned the violence and has made an appeal for unity (Pastoral Letter of 31st May 2006) and  is working hand in hand with the President and the Foreign Minister to speedily bring about a solution for a lasting peace.

    From the school, the bishop proceeded to the Don Bosco compound to visit the 15,000 plus refugees (note that this number has also climbed). He was welcomed by Fr. Antonio T. Pinto, SDB, who took him around to see the refugees.  The bishop consoled and encouraged the refugees and took time to talk with them. He left just a few minutes before noon.
   
    (on another note, the first edition of the FOSS newsletter comes out today - drop a line if you want to receive it)
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