Dili stands up for peace and prays for forthcoming Elections

by Fr Placidus Freitas sdb and SC Delegate

DILI --  On 21 February 2012, the Conference of Religious Superiors in East Timor together with the Diocesan (Dili) Commission for Justice and Peace, organised a Peace March to commemorate the Day of Peace. It was also an opportunity to launch a message of peace for the entire country as it prepares for the General Elections later this year. Change your heart, change the world was chosen as the theme for the day.
 
Around 2.00 pm everyone taking part in the March gathered at Aimutin Parish (Dili). Most of them were students and parishioners from the seven parishes in Dili. Religious and Parish Priests, though, were the real leaders for this event. Salesians and the large Salesian Family supported the initiative enthusiastically. Fr João Paulino, Superior of the Indonesia -Timor (ITM) Vice Province, who is also the President of the Conference of Religious, was very keen for the Salesian Family to be part of the event. Students from Salesian schools, parishioners from "Maria Auxiliadora" Parish (Comoro), Salesian Sisters, and of course SDBs all took part in the March.
 
From Aimutin the marchers, led by the bishop of Dili, Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva, moved in orderly fashion towards Lecidere, the bishop's residence. At this point the March transformed more into a religious procession, praying the Rosary with alternate reflections prepared for the occasion. Once they got to Lecidere the bishop offered his Message of Peace to the marchers and to all timorese, speaking in Tetun, the national language of East Timor. Bishop Ricardo, in his address, asked everyone to cooperate and to pray for the success of the General Elections 2012. "That is why we need an inner conversion," the prelate said.
 
Then a brief Eucharistic adoration took place with the bishop as celebrant. The March then finished with the launching of a Prayer Campaign for the General Elections 2012. The entire Diocese will carry out this prayer campaign for 111 days (from 22 February until 12 June, the Feast of Corpus Christi).