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Vatican to look into magazine report on alleged sex abuse by Timor Leste's Belo
Dutch weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer published an investigative report that Belo had sexually abused some boys at his residence in Dili and other places in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo (R) is greeted by followers 17 October 1999 following a Sunday mass at Dili Cathedral. Thousands of worshippers flocked to hear Belo give mass for the first time at the cathedral since his return from forced exile during attacks by pro-Jakarta militia members last month.
(AFP/Erik de Castro)
T
he Vatican said Wednesday it will investigate a Dutch magazine report about sexual abuses Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo allegedly committed when he was a bishop in East Timor.
Dutch weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer published an investigative report that Belo had sexually abused some boys at his residence in Dili and other places in the 1980s and 1990s.
The magazine quoted some male victims as saying that the 74-year-old priest gave the boys, who lived in extreme poverty, money after abusing them.
"We were scared to talk about it. We were scared to pass on the information," a male victim told the magazine, which started the investigation project in 2002.
The Catholic Church is very respected and influential in Timor Leste.
Belo hung up the telephone when the magazine requested an interview.
"What I want is apologies from Belo and the church. I want them to acknowledge the suffering inflicted on me and others so that this violence and abuse of power won't happen anymore," another victim said.
Asked about the report, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said as quoted by Kyodo News he was aware of the report and will "look into the information."
Belo, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his nonviolent resistance to Indonesia's 24-year occupation of his homeland and shared the prize with current Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta, currently lives in Portugal.
The international Catholic news weekly The Tablet wrote that allegations about the bishop’s past crimes, said to have been committed against often vulnerable teenage boys, including seminarians, have circulated among Church circles in Portugal for years, but never made it to the press.
According to De Groene Amsterdammer, Belo is under Vatican imposed restrictions on travel, and cannot return to Timor Leste without permission. He has also been required to keep a low profile, but there is no information regarding an actual canonical case against him.
