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THE SERVITOR PACIS AWARD RECIPIENTS

2000 - Mother Celeste de Carvalho Pinto, FCC

Mother Celeste de Carvalho Pinto, FCC was born on 11 August 1951 in Uato Lari, Dili, the capital of East Timor. She was the first of five children of Carlo De Carvalho and Beatriz Pinto, devout Catholics. Her father was a farmer and a well-admired catechist. They spared no efforts to give a sound Christian upbringing to their children and cherished great expectations of them.

In 1959, Celeste’s father was murdered under false accusations, which would leave a long-lasting traumatic scar in her whole life.

Young Celeste spent her school years at the college of Canossian Daughters of Charity in Ossù and Baucau, where she deepened her faith. While at high school, she would give catechism classes to small children, following her father’s footsteps. It was during that time, the young Celeste received the call to enter the religious life.

In 1971she was accepted as a postulant by the Canonssian Sisters in Ossù. During her second year of novitiate, together with some other novices, she was sent to Portugal for a better scholastic formation. There, on 7 October 1975, Celeste made her First Profession. But, owing to civil war, she could not return to Timor. That year, two of her brothers were also killed, one of which, Gregory, was a Seminarian. Another painful experience she would never forget.

In 1976 Sr. Celeste was sent to Australia to join the Canossian Sisters, including Mother Erminia Cazzaniga, who were forced to leave Timor. There she learned English and the Indonesian language to prepare herself to return to her country and to help her people afflicted by violence, sickness and hunger.

Finally, on 20 October 1978, Sister Celeste returned to Timor. After spending a little more than a month in the community of Balide in Dili, she was assigned to Baucau to assist and catechize the people. Though a woman of few words, her pastoral woks spoke volumes to the people whom served and loved so much.

In 1987 she was entrusted with the formation of postulants, a task she discharged with great diligence and commitment. In religious life, she was strict and demanding with herself and postulants. In 1992, besides her responsibility as the Directress of Postulants, she was appointed also as Superior of that Canossian community. Later, in June 1997, she was called back to Baucau, her beloved mission, to assume the responsibility of the community of Sisters, of the aspirants and of the college.

Being a lover of peace, Mother Celeste followed with interest the evolution of the political situation of her country. At the historic referendum in August 1999, the people chose independence from Indonesia. But, the destruction East Timor ensued in an unforseen and unimaginable way.

Mother Celeste, under the direction Bishop Basilio, welcomed the people of Manatuto who had come under armed attacks and had to abandon their homes. Although by nature Sister Celeste was fearsome, she could easily gather courage when she had to help others. It was, in fact, that heroic courage, inspired by an exquisite fraternal charity, that gave her the extraordinary strength to immolate, together with Mother Erminia, her life in witness of her faith and selfless love for others ... “Unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies ...it cannot sprout to glory”.

Indeed, this simple and sublime act of Christian faith and heroic generosity testifies to the spiritual greatness of this small and humble Timorese flower, Mother Celeste Pinto De Carvalho. Thousands of innocent lives have been sacrificed for the cause of freedom and democracy in East Timor. Let Mother Celeste’s love for peace and solidarity for her people always spread the fragrance of hope for the East Timorese who await eagerly to taste the freedom in their homeland and to build a nation on the foundations of lasting peace and social harmony. In recognition of Mother Celeste’s profound love and service, which reached its culmination in her supreme sacrifice, when she gave her life for the Glory of God’s name, the Path to Peace Foundation is pleased to bestow, posthumously, upon Mother Celeste Pinto De Carvalho the title “Servitor Pacis”--Servant of Peace.

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