BISHOP XIMENES BELO AWARDED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 1996 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration this morning:

"I wish to express the greatest satisfaction for the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, S.D.B., apostolic administrator of Dili, East Timor, in that this constitutes recognition of his activity as a man of the Church, marked by tireless research for dialogue, always inspired by peaceful solutions. I hope this can contribute to accelerating the time for reaching concrete results, in the respect for the rights of peoples."
OP/NOBEL PEACE/NAVARRO-VALLS:XIMENES VIS 961011 (100)