Death and resurrection in Suai
It is ten years since Fr Tarcissius Dewanto died in Suai, East Timor. Many people gathered for the anniversary on 6 December, but Fr Dewanto’s mother was not among them. She was not well enough to travel.
But she is rarely left alone. Apart from visits of Jesuit friends, and the sisters in the nearby convent, Ibu Dewanto’s neighbours, Christian and Muslim, often came to pray with her. ‘Muslims have special reverence for a martyr’, she explained. ‘They want to touch something of his, a shirt or a piece of cloth. As a martyr, they know that he is close to God. Their devotion and their kindness help me.’ She draws comfort from their visits.
Fr Dewanto, a 34 year old Jesuit ordained in July 1999 and immediately missioned to East Timor, was one of over 200 people killed in the massacre in the parish church of Suai. Suai is a coastal town, a tortuous 140 kilometres from Dili.
He was among thousands of victims of the terror which gripped East Timor following its population’s vote for independence in the referendum on 30 August. An untold number perished at the hands of anti-independence Indonesian military and their local militia allies. Hundreds of thousands also had to flee from their homes.
Two other priests, Fr Hilario Madeira, the pastor of Suai parish, and Fr Francisco Soares, died with Fr Dewanto. Two Canossian sisters were killed in Lospalos over those weeks – Sr Erminia Casaninga, an Italian, and Sr Celeste Carvalho, an East Timorese – and a deacon Hernando.
Five days after the Suai massacre, Fr Karl Albrecht, a German born priest who had come to Indonesia in 1959 and to East Timor in the early 1990s, was shot dead by an intruder in the grounds of the Jesuit house in Dili. Karl, who was the representative of Jesuit Refugee Service in East Timor at the time, was due to celebrate his Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit in just three days.
Fr Dewanto’s body, and those of the two priests who died with him, were taken across the border to West Timor and buried in a shallow grave. Fr Ageng, a Jesuit from Dili, managed to discover the place, and brought his body back to Dili. He buried him alongside Fr Albrecht in the small garden of the Jesuit residence. People constantly place fresh flowers at these graves to remember their sacrifice.
Their silent ongoing witness is a constant encouragement to the small Jesuit community, which continues the service in which their two brothers gave their lives. The reverence given to Fr Dewanto and the prayers offered by Indonesian Muslims show how in death he has brought together people of different nations and religions.
