East Timor

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POPULATION 792,000
ROMAN CATHOLIC 94.6 percent
OTHER 5.4 percent

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (the Portuguese term for "East Timor"), located in Southeast Asia, is bounded by Indonesia on the west, the Timor Sea on the south, and the Banda Sea on the north. Its territory (5,736 square miles) includes the eastern half of Timor Island, the islands of Jaco and Atauro, and Oecussi, an enclave within Indonesian Timor. Most of the country is ruggedly mountainous. The climate is tropical with a dry and a wet season. East Timor is underdeveloped, and potential economic resources include oil and gas reserves, coffee, sandalwood, marble, and tourism. On 20 May 2002, after more than 350 years of Portuguese colonialism, 24 years of Indonesian occupation, and two years of administration by the United Nations, East Timor became an independent nation.

The majority of the population is Roman Catholic. Other religions represented in East Timor include Protestantism, Islam, and Hinduism and Buddhism (the latter two typically discussed as one group in East Timor). Catholicism, introduced by the Portuguese during the sixteenth century, initially spread to the coastal regions because the mountainous interior provided a geographical barrier. At the time of the 1975 Indonesian invasion nearly three quarters of the East Timorese population were animists. During the Indonesian occupation the Catholic Church protected the East Timorese people from Indonesian abuses; this support precipitated the large conversion to Catholicism.

The East Timorese constitution (ratified in 2002) provides for the separation of church and state and recognizes religious freedom and tolerance. Since independence was declared, majority and minority religions have coexisted peacefully, although cases of property destruction at mosques have been reported.

DATE OF ORIGIN 1515 C.E.
NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS 749,000

Portuguese colonists took Roman Catholicism to East Timor in 1515, and the arrival in 1556 of a Dominican friar, António Taveira, started a morewidespread missionizing effort. Because the conversion of local chiefs often inspired many conversions among the general population, the church's earliest efforts were focused on the coastal kingdoms. By 1640 there were 10 missions and 22 churches.

The next wave of Catholic expansion began in 1697 with the arrival of the Portuguese friar Manuel de Santo António, and by 1702 Carmelite missions had followed. Seminaries had been established in Oecussi and Manatuto by 1747. Tense relations with the colonial government, however, hampered Dominican missionary activity. In 1834 the government expelled the Dominicans and replaced them with Jesuits. Missionizing was also curtailed by continual local rebellions and by the rugged mountain ranges.

Substantial conversion did not occur until after the Indonesian invasion in 1975. The East Timorese became subject to the state law requiring all Indonesian citizens to be members of a world religion. The Catholic Church served during this time as the primary protector of the East Timorese from the brutalities of the Indonesian army. These factors propelled a substantial conversion to Catholicism. By 1981 the Tetun language (the lingua franca of East Timor) had replaced Portuguese as the vernacular of Catholic rites. East Timor separated from Indonesia in 1999 and officially became independent in 2002.

The initial efforts to spread Catholicism in East Timor can be attributed to Friar António Taveira, Bishop Manuel de Santo António (who served there from 1697 to 1722), Bishop António de Castro (who served in the 1740s), and Father José António Medeiros (who arrived in 1875).

Martinho da Costa Lopes (the native apostolic administrator for East Timor) and his successor, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo (the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), have had tremendous impact in the years following World War II. As a consequence of their efforts to defend the East Timorese during the Indonesian occupation, Catholicism became established as the majority religion. Bishop Basílio do Nascimento was appointed apostolic administrator in 2002.

There have not been any theologians of particular significance in East Timor.

European-style cathedrals are found in the larger cities of East Timor. The churches in district administrative centers vary in size and elaborateness, and villages have small chapels. Churches display the mark of local craftsmanship; significant cultural symbols are incorporated into decorative carvings and paintings.

East Timorese Catholics view church buildings, cemeteries, and the personages and objects associated with these places as sacred. Their conception of "sacred" is influenced by the indigenous notion of lulik, potent spiritual power associated with certain places, objects, or persons.

Catholic holidays in East Timor include Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Assumption Day, All Saint's Day, and the Day of the Immaculate Conception. The Virgin Mary is a specialfocus of local Catholic veneration, and during May both the Marian Festival and the Feast of the Rosary venerate Mary. A family grouping (such as a village hamlet or a clan) sponsors rosary prayer sessions that center on a statue of Mary and that move from house to house. This culminates in a ritual procession that ends at the local church or at a mountainside grotto outside the village, where the statue is deposited and a Mass is held.

For church services East Timorese Catholics wear Western-style clothing in the city and tais (a traditional handwoven and dyed textile) in rural areas. The mode of dress for village women consists of a Timorese tais or Indonesian batik skirt, an Indonesian-style top (kebaya), and a lace shawl head covering (usually black) of the old Portuguese style. Priestly vestments have also incorporated tais textiles.

East Timorese Catholics tend to abstain from eating meat on Fridays (especially on Good Friday) and on Ash Wednesday. Some elders also keep meat abstinence during Lent. The strictness about avoiding meat, however, varies greatly and indeed is often superseded by the traditional feasts that accompany marriages and death rituals.

Most people in East Timor attend Sunday Mass, which is also the main social venue in rural areas. Baptism, first Communion, confirmation, marriage, and funeral are the main Catholic rites in East Timor. Offerings made during Mass include currency and local produce such as rice, eggs, and bananas. During Mass the priest also blesses bowls of flower petals, which are then taken to the grave of a loved one.

Catholic baptism in East Timor takes place when a child is between three months and seven years old. It usually follows various traditional East Timorese life-cycle rituals that secure the child's soul and introduce him or her to the community and the ancestors. When children are about 7 to 12 years old, they receive catechism training, after which the first Communion is administered with much pageantry. Confirmation ceremonies take place during an East Timorese Catholic's teenage years.

Marriage for the East Timorese is an alliance between social groups (houses and clans). Thus, traditional marriage processes (which vary widely among cultures within East Timor) precede Catholic rites. After Catholic funeral services the deceased are buried in Christian graves. These rites, however, are just the first phase of protracted traditional funerary ritual processes.

Catholics in East Timor do not proselytize.

Throughout the Indonesian occupation the church defied the state through nonviolent resistance and was the main critic of Indonesian military brutality. The church has been vocal in its human rights advocacy.

East Timorese Catholic marriage requires both partners to be of the same faith, to lead a Christian life, and to raise the resulting children as Catholics. Many of the local customary life-cycle rites have been syncretized with Catholic rites of passage. Thus, the traditional social obligations of specific categories of kin (for example, a mother's brother) to sponsor life-cycle rituals continue through Catholic rites.

Throughout Portuguese colonialism and the Indonesian occupation, the Catholic Church in East Timor was a staunch supporter of the people, providing the vehicle for resistance to oppression. In 1999, during the UN-administered "popular consultation" process that led to East Timor's independence from Indonesia, the church participated in voter education. Militia and Indonesian military rampages after the election drove many East Timorese to the sanctuary of churches, where priests and nuns risked their own lives to protect them.

The East Timorese Catholic Church's stances on birth control, divorce, and abortion follow those of the Vatican and are not considered controversial. Local church leaders do not openly confront these issues. Many East Timorese Catholics have remarried after divorce. While these marriages are not recognized by the church, they are legitimized through a civil court or through customary law.

Catholicism is an important aspect of East Timorese national and cultural identity, which was forged historically vis-à-vis relations of political power and resistance to oppression. Catholic practice has had no clearly evident effect on East Timor's music, art, or literature, all of which are heavily influenced by various traditional belief systems.

Information is lacking about the uniquely East Timorese features of Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist practices. Hinduism and Buddhism, often discussed in a combined manner, are practiced in East Timor by people of Balinese origin. Protestants mainly come from West Timor, because during colonial times the Dutch converted the West Timorese to Protestantism. A small number of Protestant missionaries operate in East Timor. It has been estimated, however, that after independence the size of the congregation was halved. With the exception of minor tensions between Protestant missionaries and Catholics in the Baucau region, the two Christian branches appear to coexist peacefully. Isolated incidents of vandalism to Muslim mosques in Dili and in Baucau have been reported. There have also been tensions between Muslims of Arabic descent and Muslims of Malay migrant descent.

Animistic beliefs focusing on ancestors have a strong presence in East Timor. Catholicism is highly syncretized with local traditional beliefs. The concept of lulik (the sacred power of places, objects, and persons) is important. Sacred places are mountains, forests, and rivers associated with the founding ancestors and the Creator God. Ancestral heirlooms are also considered sacred. The most significant ancestor-focused rituals are the funerals that include large-scale animal sacrifice. Other notable rituals center on the sacred founding houses (uma lulik), which play an important role in maintaining traditional social structures and kinship relations.

Cardoso, Luis. The Crossing: A Story of East Timor. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa. New York and London: Granta Books, 2002.

Carrey, Peter. "The Catholic Church, Religious Revival, and the Nationalist Movement in East Timor, 1975–98." Indonesia and the Malay World 27, no. 78 (1999): 77–95.

Kohen, Arnold S. From the Place of the Dead: The Epic Struggles of Bishop Belo of East Timor. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Lennox, Rowena. Fighting Spirit of East Timor: The Life of Martinho da Costa Lopes. New York: Zen Books, 2000.

Marker, Jamsheed. East Timor: A Memoir of the Negotiations for Independence. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 2003.

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