A senior Vatican official praised the Timor-Leste government’s willingness to provide annual financial assistance to the Catholic Church, calling it a long-term investment in people, not a donation. This was reported on March 23 by UCA News.
Monsignor Marco Sprizzi, Chargé d’Affaires of the Dili Apostolic Nunciature, stated that such support, aimed at helping the church’s social services, is important to address the problem of poverty and reach those who have hitherto been excluded from support. social.
On March 22, the government approved a $15 million annual grant to the Timorese Bishops’ Conference, which follows a concordat signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on the one hand, and Timor-Leste, on the one hand. for the other. The Concordat was signed during a visit by the country’s second-highest-ranking official to the Vatican in 2015, on the centennial anniversary of evangelization.
Bishop Sprizzi said that the Vatican is “grateful to the government of Timor-Leste for this annual contribution.”
He acknowledged that there were a number of disbursement difficulties in the early years, with financial statements “not as detailed, not as transparent, not as accountable as they should have been.”
So when he arrived in 2019, he said, his first task for the bishops was to achieve accountability. Now, for example, last year’s report consisted of 1,200 pages and was accompanied by supporting documents such as photographs and invoices.
Let us remember, according to the United Nations Development Program, almost 42% of the population of Timor-Leste, which amounts to 1.5 million people, lives below the poverty line and many of them are illiterate.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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