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)