Pope names head of E. Timor church

Pope names head of E. Timor church

ITALY: Pope John Paul appointed on Saturday a new head of the Roman Catholic church in East Timor to succeed Nobel Peace Laureate Bishop Carlos Belo, who has stepped down for health reasons.

The pope named Alberto Ricardo da Silva, 60, who has been rector of the seminary in the capital Dili since 2000, to succeed Belo as Bishop of Dili, a Vatican statement said.

Belo resigned in November 2002, citing ill health.

The outspoken and often fiery Belo shared the Nobel Peace Prize with then exiled resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta -- now East Timor's foreign minister -- in 1996 for working toward a peaceful solution to the territory's occupation by Indonesia.

Predominantly Catholic East Timor voted to break from 24 years of Jakarta rule in a UN-sponsored ballot in August 1999, which unleashed a wave of violence by pro-Jakarta militiamen in which the UN estimates more than 1,000 people were killed. -- Reuters