Crowd Cheers Nobel-Prize Winning Bishop

A cheering crowd of nearly 3,000 people greeted East Timor’s bishop when he arrived for church Saturday, a day after he shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for opposing Indonesia’s battle to subdue the island territory.

Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo smiled slightly at the thunderous applause and bowed his head at parishioners elated over the award, given for his peaceful opposition to government efforts to crush the independence movement on East Timor.

Dressed in a white robe and red skullcap, the bishop was attending the ordination of 36 new priests at Motael Church in Dili, capital of the former Portuguese colony, which Indonesia invaded in 1975.

“This award shows that the international world is increasingly aware of the suffering of a small group of people that have long been forgotten,” the church’s pastor, the Rev. Jose da Costa, told the crowd.