The Vatican’s representative in East Timor has urged the country’s Catholics to accept the disciplinary penalties imposed on Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo because of his “serious crimes” of sexual abuse.

Msgr. Macro Sprizzi, an official of the apostolic nunciature in East Timor, said that the Vatican’s actions reflected the fact that Bishop Belo, had been tried and found guilty of abuse charges.

Bishop Belo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his defense of human rights in East Timor, has been ordered by the Vatican not to return to the country.