c. 1996 Religion News Service

Pope creates a new diocese in East Timor

(RNS) Pope John Paul II, in an effort to sharpen the Vatican’s influence in the struggle between Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, and East Timor, a largely Roman Catholic territory occupied by Indonesia, has created a new Timorese diocese that will be led by a close ally of Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

By establishing a second church region in East Timor, the Vatican strongly reinforced its commitment to the mainly Roman Catholic enclave and its resistance to Indonesian control, the Associated Press reported Saturday (Dec. 28).

The announcement of the new diocese came just a week after the pope met with Belo at the Vatican and just days after a Dec. 24 flare-up in Dili, East Timor. In the worst of the clashes, an off-duty soldier was beaten to death on the grounds of Dili’s cathedral. There were also clashes between police and soldiers and a crowd of civilians who had gathered at the airport to welcome Belo home from Oslo, Norway, where he had received his Nobel prize.

Belo, who advocates nonviolent resistance to Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, publicly apologized for the death of the soldier.

In announcing the creation of the new diocese, the Vatican noted what it called the”urgent need”to aid the local clergy in a”new socio-political situation”in East Timor.

The new diocese, to be headquartered in Baucau, East Timor’s second largest city and the site of the main Indonesian garrison, will be headed by the Rev. Basilio do Nascimento, 46, a trusted aide of Belo who is widely perceived as sympathetic to Timorese nationalism.”I think this will reinforce the church’s position there,”Jill Jolliffe, a Lisbon, Portugal-based expert on East Timor told the AP.”This will give the bishop (Belo) much needed support, rather than dilute his position.” Belo’s co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, human rights activist Jose Ramos Horta, welcomed the move but said that Belo should remain the primary Catholic force in East Timor.”The unity of the Timorese Catholic Church is indispensable,”he said.

China sentences U.S.-based Tibetan scholar to long prison term

(RNS) A U.S.-based Tibetan scholar, who has been jailed for more than a year, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison by Chinese authorities for allegedly being a spy for the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled religious and political leader.

The prison term handed down to 30-year-old Ngawang Choepel is the third-longest given a Tibetan since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1970s, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, an independent, pro-Dalai Lama group based in Washington, D.C. The sentence was announced Thursday (Dec. 26).

Choepel, who was born in Tibet but fled the Himalayan nation with his family at age 2 in 1968, grew up in India. He became an expert in traditional Tibetan music and dance and spent 1993 at Middlebury College in Vt., studying and teaching.

Choepel, a Fulbright Scholarship winner, returned to Tibet in August 1995 to film traditional Tibetan music and dance, but was arrested a month later. China, which rules Tibet, accused Choepel of using the film project as a subterfuge for spying activities.

In announcing the long prison term, Chinese radio said Choepel had been sent to Tibet by the Dalai Lama’s”clique”and that his activities were financed”by a certain foreign government,”an oblique reference to the United States, according to Tibetan exiles.

In a statement, the International Campaign for Tibet said Choepel had no history of anti-Chinese political or human rights activism.

John Ackerly, the group’s director, said Choepel’s”excessive sentence”underscores the”failure”of President Clinton’s China policy, which pro-Tibet activists claim is not confrontational enough over the issue of human rights in China.

National Council of Churches, Vatican give aid to Cuba

(RNS) The National Council of Churches, saying that just as the three kings of the Bible traveled far and crossed political boundaries to deliver their gifts to the new-born Jesus, so, too, an NCC shipment of food and medicine to Cuba symbolizes the Christmas message of compassion in the face of political hostilities.

The NCC said that it has sent a 100,000-ton shipment of canned meats, milk, antibiotics, hospital supplies, blankets and other food and is meant to help Cubans mark Three Kings Day (Epiphany) on Jan. 6.”Three Kings Day is the big holiday for children in Cuba,”said the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, director of the NCC’s Latin American and the Caribbean Office.

The shipment was organized by Church World Service, the relief and development arm of the 33-denomination ecumenical agency.

It comes at a time when Cuban-U.S. relations are at one of their lowest points since the 1959 revolution that brought President Fidel Castro to power.”Relations between Cuba and the United States have deteriorated to the worst point since the missile crisis of 1962,”Bolioli said, adding that sending humanitarian aid is now much more difficult and expensive since it must be done through a third country and use two separate vessels.”Normally, when we could make a direct flight (between the U.S. and Havana), it took one month to prepare a shipment and cost between $7,000 and $8,000,”he said.”This shipment has taken three months to prepare and will cost close to $40,000.” Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale has reported that Pope John Paul II’s personal envoy will carry a Vatican donation to Cuba when he visits the country on Thursday (Jan. 2).

According to the newspaper, Cardinal Camilio Ruini, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, will meet with Castro on Thursday and present the donation that is to be used to aid Cuba’s poor.

The size of the donation has not been revealed, the Associated Press reported.

The donation comes in the wake of last month’s meeting between John Paul and Castro. During the meeting, Castro invited the pope to visit Cuba and the pontiff accepted, but insisted that the Catholic Church in Cuba be given greater liberty.

Quote of the day: The Rev. Daniel Donaldson, pastor of Salem Missionary Baptist Church, Fruitland, Tenn.

(RNS) Exactly one year ago, Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Fruitland, Tenn., was destroyed by arson. Today (Dec. 30), the congregation will celebrate its first service in a new sanctuary. The Rev. Daniel Donaldson, Salem’s pastor, spoke to USA Today about the church’s resurrection. He expressed thankfulness for the volunteers _ mostly white _ who helped rebuild his black congregation’s edifice and chose not to dwell on the unsolved arson.

Donaldson said the last year was like”standing in the shoes of Moses and watching the waters part. We had faith before, but until something like this happens, you don’t really understand. Now we understand. We have been touched by the Lord.”

MJP END RNS