KUPANG (UCAN): The Archdiocese of Kupang, and the Diocese of Atambua in West Timor, Indonesia, which share a border with Timor-Leste, have asked priests, nuns, and the faithful to register with them if they want to attend Pope Francis’ visit to Timor-Leste.
Together with Church authorities in Timor-Leste, the dioceses have made arrangements with the immigration office to process travel documents.
Father Erminus Fkun, secretary of the Archdiocese of Kupang, said Catholics should register with their parishes and the documentation will be forwarded to the immigration office.
For the benefit of those who live on small islands like Rote, Alor and Sabu, immigration officials will visit them to facilitate their trip to Timor-Leste, Father Fkun said. He added that the archdiocese has made an arrangement with the bishops’ council in Timor-Leste.
Yosef Hello, secretary of the Pastoral Centre in Atambua, said that the districts of Belu, Malaka and North Central Timor share borders with Timor-Leste.
Visitors must possess a minimum of US$100 in cash, Hello said and added that people who had “bloody hands” as a result of the Timor-Leste independence conflict in 1999 are unwelcome.
“We have a special arrangement with the immigration office to facilitate the visit,” he said.
Pope Francis will visit Timor-Leste from September 9 for three days. He will celebrate a Mass on September 10 in Tasitolu in Dili where Pope St. John Paul II celebrated a Mass during his visit in 1987 when the country was under Indonesian rule
Marciana Dominika Jone, regional head of the Ministry of Law in Christian-majority East Nusa Tenggara province, said the department wants to bring its “services closer to the community” to facilitate the trip to neighbouring Timor-Leste.
She said people need not go all the way to the immigration office located in the provincial capital, Kupang.
“Data can be immediately submitted to us so that passport services can be quickly scheduled before Pope Francis arrives in Dili,” Jone said.
Nanang Mustafa, head of the Kupang Immigration Office, said visitors could obtain passports within three days instead of the usual two-weeks.
“We are optimising all resources to help the community,” he said.
Fransiskus Mone, from South Central Timor Regency in East Nusa Tenggara province, said he wants to attend the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Dili. “I have to go there because I want to meet the pope. If not now, when?” he said.
Pope Francis will visit Timor-Leste from September 9 for three days. He will celebrate a Mass on September 10 in Tasitolu in Dili where Pope St. John Paul II celebrated a Mass during his visit in 1987 when the country was under Indonesian rule.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has asked its dioceses to send representatives to attend the four-day papal visit to Indonesia from September 3.
“The exact number of visitors is being ascertained by a committee,” Father Anthonius Gregorius Lalu, deputy coordinator of the papal visit committee, said.
Bishop Dominikus Saku of Atambua, said his diocese wanted to send up to 80 representatives to attend the papal Mass at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta on September 5, but no one came forward to register.
