The Catholic Church’s Campaign against the “Ethnic, Cultural and Religious Extinction of the Identity of the People” of East Timor: 1981–89

Abstract

The Catholic Church hierarchy in occupied East Timor launched a major campaign in the early 1980s which bore directly on issues of East Timorese nationalism and national identity, arguing that Indonesian human rights abuses in the territory were leading to the extinction’ of the identity of the East Timorese people. From 1981 onward, the Timorese Church expressed concerns over the “ethnic, cultural and religious extinction of the identity of the people” of East Timor. This campaign and the international networks it mobilized stung the Indonesian administration and forced it to respond. Examining the history of the Church’s role in the constitution of politlical community in East Timor through the Portuguese and Indonesian eras, this paper details the evolution of this campaign from 1981 onward, and the way Church campaigns over Timorese cultural and religious identity contributed to the development of a national identity and reinforced claims of national self-determination.