{"id":18149,"date":"2021-01-30T01:30:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T01:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=54230"},"modified":"2021-01-30T01:30:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T01:30:14","slug":"church-demands-timor-leste-faithful-accept-defrocking-of-accused-priest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/30\/church-demands-timor-leste-faithful-accept-defrocking-of-accused-priest-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Church demands Timor-Leste faithful accept defrocking of accused priest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><div class=\"\" dir=\"auto\">\n<div id=\"jsc_c_43\" class=\"ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc ihqw7lf3 dati1w0a\" data-ad-comet-preview=\"message\" data-ad-preview=\"message\">\n<div class=\"j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg\">\n<div class=\"qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d\">\n<div class=\"kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/category\/pacific-media-watch\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a> newsdesk<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Timorese Episcopal Conference has called on the entire Catholic community in Timor-Leste to accept and respect Pope Francis&#8217; decision to expel an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2019-02-12\/east-timor-catholic-church-acknowledges-abuse-for-the-first-time\/10801778\">American accused of child sexual abuse in the country<\/a> from the priesthood, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lusa.pt\/lusanews\/article\/Xa7hVvcHrTHvsPU3zHUEwTMSZM5iuSI1\/east-timor-church-demands-faithful-accept-defrocking-of-priest-accused-of-abuse\">reports LUSA news agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mr Richard Daschbach has already received his sentence for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the number 208 \/ 2018-67069 of November 6, 2018 from Pope Francis: he is no longer a priest, he is now a layman,&#8221; said the CET statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Confirmed by the Archdiocese of Dili&#8221; and addressed &#8220;to priests, religious, deacons, brothers, nuns and all baptised in Timor-Leste&#8221;, the statement said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2019-02-12\/east-timor-catholic-church-acknowledges-abuse-for-the-first-time\/10801778\"  rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> East Timor defrocks Catholic priest after case of child sexual abuse is confirmed<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAccording to this decree of the Holy Father, there is nothing more to say about this priest&#8217;s priesthood. Priests, deacons, brothers, mothers and all the baptised are asked to respect this decree and not make any further comments \u201d, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The statement, signed by the president of the Timorese Episcopal Conference (CET), Norberto do Amaral, bishop of Maliana, comes after news and images on Timorese social networks that re-identified Daschbach as a priest, including by some religious, have spread in recent days.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>\u201cThe Pope&#8217;s decision comes from a deep and lengthy process to finally arrive at this final decision. Once again, I ask everyone to respect and accept this decision of the Pope,\u201d wrote Do Amaral.<\/p>\n<p>News of the East Timorese charge against Daschbach, who is accused of child sexual abuse and pornography, and who has already been convicted of these crimes by the Vatican, has sparked criticism of journalists, lawyers and victim support organisations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Criticism over Gusm\u00e3o visit<\/strong><br \/>\nThe debate over the case reignited this week after former East Timorese President Xanana Gusm\u00e3o visited Daschbach in the house where he is under house arrest in Dili on the accused&#8217;s birthday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>News coverage of this visit drew criticism from the president of the Timorese Press Council, Virg\u00edlio Guterres, who said the news in the national press tried to &#8220;whitewash&#8221; Daschbach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is serious news. This is an attempt to influence public opinion and even people in court to influence the decision,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is very serious because the news does not even make reference to the Vatican&#8217;s expulsion decisions or data on the crime he is accused of in East Timorese justice,&#8221; he told Lusa.<\/p>\n<p>Although the articles mention that the ex-priest is the subject of an ongoing judicial process, they never explain what are the crimes he is accused of in East Timor or the fact that Daschbach had already been convicted and sacked by the Vatican.<\/p>\n<p>The news presents in great detail a biography of Daschbach without ever referring to data on the crimes of which he is accused.<\/p>\n<p>Daschbach, 84, is accused of abusing at least two dozen children in the orphanage where he worked, Topu Honis, and of the crimes of child pornography, according to the East Timorese prosecutor&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vatican &#8216;has no doubt&#8217;<\/strong><br \/>\nIn October last year, the representative of the Holy See in Dili told Lusa that the Vatican &#8220;has no doubt&#8221; that the former priest was guilty of these crimes, expelling him from the priesthood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no doubt for the Church that he is guilty of sexual abuse against minors, recognised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with an unappealable sentence,\u201d said Marco Sprizzi, interim nuncio and the maximum representative of the Pope and of the Vatican in Timor-Leste.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard Daschbach himself admitted and pleaded guilty before the Church. He looks like he backed down before civil justice, but before the church he never backed down.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to be clear on this, \u201dsaid Sprizzi, who is responsible in Timor-Leste for the relationship between the Holy See and the Timorese Catholic Church and for the Holy See&#8217;s relationship with the Timorese state.<\/p>\n<p>The archbishop of Dili, V\u00edrgilio do Carmo da Silva, had previously apologised for criticism and accusations to all those who have been involved in the investigation of the former priest accused of pedophilia and child pornography in Timor-Leste, reaffirming his full support for the victims .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of the Archdiocese of Dili, I want to apologise for the accusations and allegations that have affected the people involved in the investigation. The church wants to give its support and help the victims declared by the police authorities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2019-02-12\/east-timor-catholic-church-acknowledges-abuse-for-the-first-time\/10801778\">The ABC reports that\u00a0Daschbach<\/a> was regarded as a hero in Timor-Leste for founding children&#8217;s shelters that had operated for more than two decades.<\/p>\n<p>He founded the Topu Honis or &#8220;Guide To Life&#8221; children&#8217;s homes in Oekusi Ambeno, an East Timorese enclave in the Indonesian-controlled western half of Timor, in 1992, the broadcaster reported.<\/p>\n<p>Daschbach was also feted for saving children during East Timor&#8217;s war for independence from Indonesia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/01\/30\/church-demands-timor-leste-faithful-accept-defrocking-of-accused-priest\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asia Pacific Report newsdesk The Timorese Episcopal Conference has called on the entire Catholic community in Timor-Leste to accept and respect Pope Francis\u2019 decision to expel an American accused of child sexual abuse in the country from the priesthood, reports LUSA news agency. \u201cMr Richard Daschbach has already received his sentence for the Doctrine of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3343,3344,362,5,3345,118,94,358,12,3279,3346,105,16,1743,3347,3348,3349],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18150,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18149\/revisions\/18150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}