Priest in E. Timor booted for abuse

DILI, East Timor — An American missionary who was a hero in East Timor for founding children’s shelters that have operated for more than two decades has been expelled from his Catholic congregation after admitting to sexual abuse of minors, a church official and a family member said.

Media reports about the allegations have stunned East Timor, one of two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia along with the Philippines. The bishop of Dili, Virgilio do Carmo da Silva, told reporters on Sunday that Richard Daschbach was expelled from the church last year and was no longer a priest.

Daschbach was born in Pennsylvania and first went to East Timor in 1966 when it was a Portuguese colony. He founded the Topu Honis or “Guide To Life” children’s homes in Oe-Kusi Ambeno, an East Timorese enclave in the Indonesian-controlled western half of Timor, in 1992, and was also feted for saving children during East Timor’s war for independence from Indonesia.