Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
FMA
Dili (Agenzia Fides) - "I really wanted to bring Jesus to the people, but then it was they who brought me to him" is how Sister Maria Fe Silva sums up her whole life in one sentence. The Catholic nun was born in the Philippines, and became a nun of the Daughters of Saint Mary Help of Christians. Her dream of a missionary life came true when she went to East Timor, where she stayed for 30 years, caring mainly for children and young people, including the children of the guerrillas and the fighters of the "Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente" (FRETELIN), which in those years fought for the independence of East Timor and against the Indonesian invasion and annexation of the former Portuguese colony.
After a year of preparation in Rome, Sister Maria Fe arrived in East Timor in 1988 with other Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, to offer her contribution in apostolic works already begun under the direction of the Salesians who were already present in the country. The Sisters of Mary Help of Christians are now in charge of the orphanage for 150 boys and girls in the mountain village of Venilale, 30 km from Baucau. "When I arrived with an Italian sister and an American sister," Sister Maria Fe tells Fides, "many people came to welcome us, parents with their children, priests and whole local families. A year earlier, when the religious superior, who led the mission, went to Baucau, where she was welcomed by the Salesians and many young people holding a large banner with the inscription 'Maìn, Timor is waiting for you!' "Main', explains Sister Maria Fe, is the way we call Saint Maria Mazzarello, our foundress". When the nun arrived in Venilale, a dozen children from the mountain area had just been entrusted to the orphanage. "They were called 'the children of the Revolutionary Front'," recalls Sister Maria Fe, "they were children of FRETELIN fighters. The situation in the country was still very tense due to the clashes with the Indonesian military who had occupied the island since 1975. The Salesians had always acted as intermediaries with the government, and an agreement had also been reached to take care of the children of the FRETELIN families." "For this reason," adds Sister Maria Fe and lingers on a detail that makes her smile today, "the military did not consider us real nuns, but mistook us for FRETELIN fighters disguised as nuns, since we were taking care of these children, the children of the guerrillas" .
Today, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians still take care of the children in the orphanage and have opened another one in the town of Laga: "We have a hundred children and young people between the ages of 6 and 16 living with us. We have the home of the boys separated from girls. In the morning they go to the state school and after school they do leisure activities with us and we prepare them to receive the sacraments. We have also opened a clinic in Venilale to assist women". After her first activity in the mission in Venilale, Sister Maria Fe spent some time in Jakarta and has been accompanying the community of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians on the island of Sumba, near Bali since 2017. "In Sumba," explains the nun, "we have St. Elizabeth College, where we take care of girls aged 11 to 18. We involve them in our pastoral activities as we visit the different villages... We sisters live in the parish of St. Elisabeth in the Diocese of Weetabula, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Kupang. In my parish alone there are 18 mission stations with 12,000 Catholics". (MFS/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 22/6/2023)
