António Joaquim de Medeiros (Chinese: 明德祿; 15 October 1846 – 7 January 1897) was a Portuguese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.

The simplest principles of natural and moral Law, the social relationships that create a family amongst men: everything is ignorance, everything is misery amongst these unfortunate people.

[2]When Medeiros took over the missions, the priests set out evangelising and combating "anti-Christian" institutions, and were fervent in their targeting of the barlake (Portuguese: barlaque) system in which the chiefs of ruling houses would exchange wives as gifts.

[2] "The Devil," as one priest dubbed it, was "always seeking the loss of souls," a "superstitious" institution that was seen by the missionaries as the main threat to the establishment of Christianity as the mainstream faith of Timorese society, because it encouraged polygyny and concubinage.

[2] To combat this, Medeiros sent written instructions to his missionaries emphasising the need to celebrate marriages and baptisms amongst the families of the tribal elite.

He wrote:In Timor there circulates as a commonplace the idea that the authorities are forced to respect the manners and customs of the natives, and therefore they have nothing to do with the pagan marriages between Christians.

If they simply would do this, it would not be too bad, because the missionaries would rectify in practice such an absurd error; however, cases have occurred that demonstrate with clear evidence the very intolerable abuses of some hinterland authorities who fight against Catholic matrimony between Christian natives.

[2] These counter-accusations culminated around the same time when the Governor of Portuguese Timor, Celestino da Silva, wrote scathing letters to Medeiros as well as the Bishop of Macau, denouncing "scandalous" cases involving the priests.