Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo - Resignation As Apostolic Administrator and New Pastoral Activity

Resignation As Apostolic Administrator and New Pastoral Activity

In the aftermath of East Timorese independence on 20 May 2002, the pressure of events and the ongoing stress he endured began to show their effects on Bishop Belo's health. Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation as Apostolic Administrator of Dili on November 26, 2002.

Following his resignation Bishop Belo traveled to Portugal for medical treatment. By the beginning of 2004, there were repeated calls for him to return to East Timor and to run for the office of president. However, in May 2004 he told Portuguese state-run television RTP, that he would not allow his name to be put up for nomination. "I have decided to leave politics to politicians," he stated. One month later, on 7 June 2004, Pascuál Chavez, rector major of the Salesian Society, announced from Rome that Bishop Belo, returned to health, would take up a new assignment. In agreement with the Holy See, he would go to Mozambique as a missionary, and live as a member of the Salesian Society in that country.

In a statement released on 8 June, Bishop Belo explained: "Following two meetings in 2003 and in 2004 with His Eminence the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, I am offering myself to serve the Kingdom of God on the Missions, outside East Timor, in Mozambique, more precisely in the Diocese of Maputo. To go on the missions was a dream that I always had during the years of my youth. Also during the 19 years of my episcopal ministry in Dili (1983–2002), one of the subjects I spoke about most was that of the missions and the need to be missionaries. Today has come the time to put into practice what I said to the Christians of East Timor."

In July 2004, Bishop Belo took up missionary work in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique and this year was awarded a Honorary Doctorate from CEU Cardinal Herrera University

In February 2011 Belo received the Prize for Lusophonic Personality of the Year, given by MIL: Movimento Internacional Lusófono in the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.