VATICAN CITY (AP)—The Vatican said Thursday that it imposed disciplinary sanctions on Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo in the past two years, following allegations that he sexually abused boys in East Timor during the 1990s.
The Vatican admission came a day after a Dutch magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, exposed the claims against the revered East Timor independence hero, citing two of Belo’s alleged victims and reporting there were others who hadn’t come forward.
Spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases received allegations “concerning the bishop’s behavior” in 2019 and within a year had imposed the restrictions. They included limitations on Belo’s movements and exercise of ministry, and prohibited him from having voluntary contact with minors or contact with East Timor.
News of Belo’s behavior sent shockwaves through East Timor, where he is a regarded as a hero for fighting to win its independence from Indonesian rule.
In a statement, Bruni said the sanctions were “modified and reinforced” in November 2021 and that Belo had formally accepted the punishment on both occasions.
The Vatican provided no explanation for why Belo resigned as head of the Roman Catholic church in East Timor two decades early, in 2002, and was sent to Mozambique, where he was allowed to work with children.
News of Belo’s behavior sent shockwaves through the heavily Catholic, impoverished Southeast Asian nation, where he is a regarded as a hero for fighting to win East Timor’s independence from Indonesian rule.
“We are here also in shock to hear this news,” an official at the archdiocese of Dili, East Timor, said Thursday, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict.
De Groene Amsterdammer said two alleged victims, identified only as Paulo and Roberto, reported being abused by Belo and said other boys were also victims. It said its investigation showed that Belo’s abuse was known to the East Timorese government, and to humanitarian and church workers.
“The bishop raped and sexually abused me that night,” Roberto was quoted as telling the magazine. “Early in the morning he sent me away. I was afraid because it was still dark. So I had to wait before I could go home. He also left money for me. That was meant so that I would keep my mouth shut. And to make sure I would come back.”
Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict in their home country as it struggled to gain independence from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony.
“I prefer to await further action from the Holy See,” Jose Ramos-Horta said. “I can’t, I do not have, and I cannot have any other comment on that.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, in its citation, praised Belo’s courage in refusing to be intimidated by Indonesian forces. The committee noted that while trying to get the United Nations to arrange a plebiscite for East Timor, he smuggled out two witnesses to a bloody 1991 massacre so they could testify to the U.N. human rights commission in Geneva.
Ramos-Horta went on to become president of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony in Southeast Asia. Upon his return Thursday from the United States, where he addressed the U.N. General Assembly, Ramos-Horta was asked about the allegations against his co-Nobel laureate and deferred to the Vatican.
“I prefer to await further action from the Holy See,” he said. “I can’t, I do not have, and I cannot have any other comment on that.”
Belo, who was believed to be living in Portugal, didn’t respond when reached by telephone by Radio Renascença, the private broadcaster of the Portuguese church.
The Portuguese branch of the Salesians said in a statement Thursday that it learned “with great sadness and astonishment” of the news.
Belo is a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Roman Catholic religious order that has long had influence at the Vatican. The Portuguese branch of the Salesians said in a statement Thursday that it learned “with great sadness and astonishment” of the news. The branch distanced itself from Belo, saying he hadn’t been linked to the order since he took charge in East Timor.
“As regards issues covered in the news, we have no knowledge that would allow us to comment, leaving that to those who possess responsibility and knowledge” of the matter, the statement said.
It said the Portuguese Salesians took Belo in at the request of their superiors after he left East Timor in 2002 and because he was highly regarded, but said he had done no pastoral work in Portugal.
By 2002, when Belo retired as head of the church in East Timor, the sex abuse scandal had just exploded publicly in the United States and the Vatican had just begun to crack down on abusive priests.
Belo has a low-profile presence on the Portuguese website of the Salesians, which carried an article from May noting that he attended a 20th anniversary celebration of East Timor’s independence and delivered a greeting. While the order said it had no links with Belo, he is still listed in the 2021 Vatican yearbook by his Salesian initials “SDB” at the end of his name.
De Groene Amsterdammer said its research indicated that Belo also abused boys in the 1980s before he became a bishop when he worked at an education center run by the Salesians.
Neither the Nobel Committee nor the United Nations immediately responded to requests for comment.
Paulo, now 42, told the Dutch magazine he was abused once by Belo at the bishop’s residence in East Timor’s capital, Dili. He asked to remain anonymous “for the privacy and safety of himself and his family,” the magazine said.
It is unclear whether any alleged victims ever came forward to local church, law enforcement or Vatican authorities, or if church officials suspected anything problematic in his behavior.
“I thought: this is disgusting. I won’t go there anymore,” the magazine quoted him as saying.
Roberto, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he was abused more often, starting when he was about 14 after a religious celebration in his hometown. Roberto later moved to Dili, where the alleged abuse continued at the bishop’s residence, Groene Amsterdammer reported.
It is unclear whether any alleged victims ever came forward to local church, law enforcement or Vatican authorities, or if church officials suspected anything problematic in his behavior.
St. John Paul II accepted Belo’s resignation as apostolic administrator of Dili on Nov. 26, 2002, when he was 54 years old, nearly two decades shy of the normal retirement age for bishops. The brief Vatican announcement at the time cited a code of canon law that allows bishops under age 75 to retire for health reasons or for some other “grave” reasons that make them unable to continue on as bishop.
Only in 2019 did Pope Francis pass a church law requiring abuse and sexual misconduct against bishops to be reported internally, and providing a mechanism to investigate the claims.
In 2005, Belo told UCANews, a Catholic news agency, that he resigned because of stress and poor health and that the newly independent East Timor needed a new church leader.
Belo had no other episcopal career after that, and Groene Amsterdammer said he moved to Mozambique and worked as a priest there—an unusual transfer for a bishop, especially an internationally celebrated Nobel Peace Prize-winning bishop.
Belo told UCANews he moved to Mozambique after consulting with the head of the Vatican’s missionary office, Cardinal Cresenzio Sepe, and agreed to work there for a year before returning to East Timor. It appears he never returned permanently.
The allegations against Belo are certain to rock East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence.
“I am an assistant priest in Maputo. I do pastoral work by teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people. I have descended from the top to the bottom,” UCANews quoted Belo as saying.
Efforts to reach Sepe, who is now retired, were not successful: Emails were not immediately returned.
By 2002, when Belo retired as head of the church in East Timor, the sex abuse scandal had just exploded publicly in the United States and the Vatican had just begun to crack down on abusive priests, requiring all cases of abuse to be sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith for review.
Bishops, however, were exempted from that requirement and regularly got a pass on any Vatican sanction. Only in 2019 did Pope Francis pass a church law requiring abuse and sexual misconduct against bishops to be reported internally, and providing a mechanism to investigate the claims.
The allegations against Belo are certain to rock East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence. Last year, a defrocked American priest, Richard Daschbach, was found guilty by a Dili court of sexually abusing orphaned and disadvantaged young girls under his care and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the first such case of its kind in the country.
