Virgílio do Carmo da Silva was born on 27 November 1967 in the town of Venilale, in the eastern part of the colony of Portuguese Timor, today the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste.
He received primary and secondary education at the Colégio de Dom Bosco in Fatumaca, where he obtained his diploma, and feeling his vocation to the priesthood mature, shortly after he entered the Salesian Society. He carried out his novitiate in Fatumaca, in his native country, and there he made his first vows on 31 May 1990; then he was sent to Manila, in the Philippines, to study philosophy and theology, until his perpetual profession, which took place in Parañaque on 19 March 1997.
At the end of his formation, he received priestly ordination on 8 December 1998. Immediately afterwards, he was entrusted with his first assignment as Director of Novices in Timor leste, a role he carried out for a five-year period, until in 2004 he was appointed Economor of the house of formation and assistant parish priest in his native Venilale.
In 2005 he moved to Rome, Italy, for a two-year stay at the Pontifical Salesian University, at the end of which he obtained a degree in spirituality. Returning to his homeland, he became Director of Novices in 2007 and Rector of the Salesian community and the Don Boofsco Technical High School in Fatumaca from 2009, holding both roles until 2014.
He was Delegate for the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA) for the Salesians in Timor Leste from 2007 to 2015, and for Formation (2013-16). In 2015 he was appointed Superior of the Salesian Vice-Province of Timor Leste (TLS), holding the position until his promotion to the episcopate, which took place on 30 January 2016, when Pope Francis appointed him as the fourth Bishop of Dili.
He received episcopal consecration on the following 19 March, in the protected area of Tasitolu, by the imposition of hands of Joseph Salvador Marino, titular archbishop of Natchitoches and Apostolic Nuncio to Timor Leste, and took possession of the diocese during a subsequent ceremony held in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili. As his episcopal motto he chose Ad Deum Patrem Omnipotentem (To God the Father Almighty).
In his pastoral ministry he has committed himself, among other things, to promoting the relaunching of religious tourism, to give the country's fragile economy a new boost.
On 11September 2019, Pope Francis erected the ecclesiastical province of East Timor, elevating the diocese of Dili to a metropolitan see; at the same time, therefore, Carmo da Silva became its first metropolitan archbishop.
On 29 May 2022, at the end of the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis announced his creation as a cardinal, which then took place in the consistory on the following 27 August.
He is currently a member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
