By Vaclav Klement: 

After the resignation of Fr. Andre Delimarta (He was Delegate for Indonesia from December 2013 until March 2015) and after due consultation, and proposal of the Superior of the ITM Vice-province the Rector Major appointed as Fr. Delimarta’s successor Fr. Lino de Assis Belo for the triennium 2015-2018. The new Delegate has begun to assume the post at the beginning of April 2015 in Jakarta in the presence of the new ITM Superior Fr. Virgilio Da Silva.

Fr. Lino Belo was born in Baucau (Timor Leste) on September 28, 1967 and made his perpetual profession on September 7, 1997. He was ordained in 1999, after completing his theology studies in Cremisan (MOR). He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy (Jakarta, STF) and Theology (Cremisan – UPS) and also obtained a Master’s degree in Education.

After returning to the vice-province in 1999 he spent six years in Jakarta – Sunter, Postnovitiate community. From 2009 he was assigned as Rector in the new Salesian presence in Blitar – Surabaya (Eastern Java). In the past two years, he served as the headmaster of the STMK (secondary technical school) in Blitar.

He speaks Tetum, Bahasa Indonesia, English and Italian fluently. Since 2013, Fr. Lino has been a member of the Indonesia Delegation council.

The young and promising Delegation of Indonesia was canonically erected by Fr. Pascual Chávez on January 20, 2010—25 years after starting the first Salesian presence in this largest Muslim country by Fr. José Carbonell. Presently, the delegation is comprised of different presences - Wisma Don Bosco Formation house (Jakarta - 1992), Tigaraksa Vocation Training Center (Jakarta – 1999 & Pre-novitiate – 2001), Vocation training center and Novitiate (Sumba – 2002 and 2005, respectively), Parish of St. John Bosco (Jakarta – 2004), Surabaya – Blitar – Purwokerto (East Java presences 2009-2014).

At present there are four Salesian canonical communities and four 4 presences in Indonesia.

There are about 60 Indonesian Salesian priests and brothers, most of them are still in initial formation both in Indonesia and abroad. There are estimated 8 million Catholics in 29 dioceses. The Salesians of Don Bosco are present in five of these. Also, the Salesian family is slowly growing with some 30 Salesian Cooperators, 5 FMA sisters and hundreds of Don Bosco past pupils of our vocation training centers.