Basilio do Nascimento

Who is Basilio do Nascimento?

Basílio do Nascimento Martins is the Roman Catholic bishop of Baucau, East Timor.

He was born on June 14, 1950, in Suai, then Portuguese Timor and ordained priest in Évora, in 1977. He worked for 20 years in Portugal and France before returning home in 1994, which was at the time under Indonesian occupation.

He became apostolic administrator of the new Diocese of Baucau on November 30, 1996 and titular bishop on January 6, 1997. When Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo retired, Nascimento became apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Dili, until the new bishop of Dili, Alberto Ricardo da Silva, was introduced on March 6, 2004. Nascimento then became bishop of Baucau.

In October 1999, the President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance Xanana Gusmão thanked Bishop Nascimento for the support of the Church in the struggle for independence.

Concerned that the names of the thousands of lives lost during Indonesia’s occupation of the country will be forgotten in the name of reconciliation with Indonesia, on 21 January 2006 he said that reconciliation with Jakarta without justice is meaningless.