Norway: The decision not to give the Nobel Peace Prize to Pope John Paul disappointed Vatican officials and Catholics, who felt the ailing pontiff deserved it and may not live to get another chance.
"The Pope is sick exactly because of the pain that wars caused him so he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize," said Anna, an elderly Italian, after visiting the Vatican yesterday.
The 83-year-old Pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has made thousands of appeals for peace, disarmament and the relief of Third World debt throughout his long pontificate.
Supporters felt that this should have been his year because he marks his 25th anniversary next week, he was instrumental in the fall of communism in 1989 and opposed the Iraq war, and recently his health has appeared to go into steep decline.
At the Vatican, officials went out of their way to hide their disappointment. Their reaction could be summed up by one comment: "He deserved it and it would have been nice if had got it, but he does not need it."
In the Pope's Polish homeland, former president Mr Lech Walesa, who won the prize in 1983 for his leadership of Poland's Solidarity anti-communist movement, spoke for many of his compatriots, saying: "I have nothing against this lady, but if there is anyone alive who deserves this year's Nobel Peace Prize, it is the Holy Father."
"I am a great fan of the Pope and I think he should have won," said an English tourist, Mr John Richway. "I don't know the Iranian woman but I'm disappointed. I think he does an awful lot of good, not just for Catholics but for the world."
The Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, who won the 1980 Nobel literature prize, said the Pope deserved the peace prize but suspected he had not got it because it would have honoured the entire Roman Catholic Church.
Some observers said the Pope might have been overlooked for the prize despite his strong peace credentials because of his views on abortion, birth control and homosexuality.
Asked about this view, one Vatican official said: "I thought this was a peace prize and not a prize in sexual ethics." - (Reuters)