Newly returned bishop meet ABRI leaders

Newly returned bishop meet ABRI leaders

DILI (JP): Mgr. Basilio do Nascimento, the newly ordained
bishop of Baucau, East Timor, spent his first full day home after
his January ordination in Rome meeting with local military
officers.

The 46-year-old do Nascimento was accompanied by Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo on his
visit to the commander of the Wira Dharma military district, Col.
Mahidin Simbolon, and East Timor Police Chief Col. Yusuf
Mucharam.

"We are here to introduce Bishop do Nascimento, who is now the
leader of the Baucau diocese, to you. You and he knew each other
before, but he was then a priest while he is now a bishop," Belo
told Simbolon.

"We need to respect and support one another ... and understand
our respective duties," do Nascimento said.

The Vatican created the Diocese of Baucau in December, to
oversee the regencies of Manatuto, Viqueque and Lautem. In Baucau
diocese there are about 200,000 Catholics, while in Dili, the
capital of East Timor there are more than 500,000 Catholics.

Pope John Paul II ordained do Nascimento, formerly an
assistant to Belo, and eleven other bishops in early January.

The new bishop arrived home quietly on Monday morning. He
immediately went to see Belo and, later in the day, led a mass in
Dili. Local Catholic youths had reportedly planned to greet his
return, planned for March 18, with a great fanfare.

"I came home early so I could prepare better for my new
duties. I still have to take care of some unfinished tasks and
see that they are transferred to my successor," he told The
Jakarta Post.

During the meeting yesterday, Simbolon recounted how Belo had
been so overwhelmed by ministering to the East Timorese Catholics
that he had not had the chance to convey to them "the warmth of
the teaching to the congregation."

"The new bishop will not only ease Bishop Belo's burden but
also benefit the Catholics because they now have greater
opportunity to feel the warmth of the teaching," Simbolon said.

The move to bolster the presence of the Roman Catholic Church
in the territory comes after Belo met with Pope John Paul II at
the Vatican last year and called for his help in supporting his
work in East Timor.

Do Nascimento is a sociologist who graduated from the Sorbonne
in Paris. After living in Portugal for 27 years, he returned to
East Timor two years ago.

Fluent in French and Portuguese, do Nascimento has been
studying Indonesian in Yogyakarta. He is known as a modest and
reserved intellectual. (33/swe)