Jaime Garcia Goulart

In 1941, Goulart was named apostolic administrator of the newly-created Diocese of Dili. During World War II, Goulart faced persecution by the Japanese occupying forces, prompting him to escape to Australia in 1942. Following the end of the war in 1945, he was appointed bishop of Dili and returned to Portuguese Timor. During his 20+ year tenure as bishop, Goulart oversaw a five-fold growth in the colony's Catholic population, from 30,000 (6.4% of the population) to nearly 150,000 (around a quarter). He also led the expansion of the church's education system, and gave particular attention to the training of seminarians.

Citing poor health, Goulart retired in 1967 and returned to the Azores, where for a time he oversaw a children's foundation in his hometown. He died in 1997 at the age of 89, and is buried in Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel

Early life and education Goulart was born on 10 January 1908 in Candelária on the island of Pico in the Azores, the son of Maria Felizarda and João Garcia Goulart. He was related on both his father's and mother's side of Cardinal José da Costa Nunes, the Bishop of Macau; his paternal grandmother, Isabel Emília da Costa, was the cardinal's paternal aunt, and his maternal grandmother, Isabel Felizarda de Castro, was the cardinal's maternal aunt. He celebrated his first mass on 15 May 1931 at his home parish of Nossa Senhora das Candeias in Candelária.

Priesthood

Missionary in Macau and Timor On 13 February 1932, Goulart was sent as a missionary to the Portuguese colonies in Asia. During this period, Portuguese Timor was home to more than 30,000 indigenous Catholics, with over 1,000 new converts each year. In August 1942, Goulart was beaten by Japanese soldiers after they discovered he had lent his car to rescue a wounded Royal Australian Air Force airman who had crashed in the mountains. In September 1942, Goulart and other priests were arrested and questioned by Japanese officers about their contact with Australian servicemen on the island.

When word spread of a Japanese order to their local Timorese allies to kill the remaining Europeans in Timor, Goulart tracked down the Australian commanding officer, Bernard Callinan, at his mountain hideout in Alas, to ask for help for himself and his fellow missionaries. After arriving in Australia, the missionaries initially lived in an internment camp at Bobs Farm in New South Wales. Goulart later moved to a Redemptorist monastery in Pennant Hills, Sydney, where he remained until the end of the war. The Holy See's Apostolic Delegate to Australia and New Zealand, Cardinal Giovanni Panico, was Goulart's principal consecrator, with Archbishop of Sydney Norman Gilroy and Bishop of Armidale John Coleman serving as co-consecrators.

Goulart served as bishop of Dili from 1945 until 1967. On 28 December 1966, Goulart announced that he had asked Pope Paul VI two months earlier to accept his resignation due to "my precarious state of health and fatigue". Goulart officially resigned on 31 January 1967, and was replaced by Ribeiro as bishop of Dili.

Later life, death, and legacy In August 1967, Goulart returned to the Azores, initially settling in Horta on the island of Faial. His funeral mass was held at the parish church in Ponta Delgada, with Bishop of Angra António de Sousa Braga as the celebrant. When he retired in 1967, Goulart described the seminary as his most cherished contribution as bishop of Dili. In 2016, a documentary film, Ida Nebe Fa'an Pulsa (English: The Pulsa Seller), was released, which follows a young Timorese man who "seeks the seeds left by [Goulart] in a young nation devastated by occupations and wars for... independence."