Dhaka (Fides Service) - Radio Veritas has assigned its 2003 award to three men, a catechist poet, an Italian missionary and a Muslim teacher for their tireless efforts to promote social development and interreligious harmony in Bangladesh. Fr Carlos Larose, director of Radio Veritas Asia reports. The catechist Peter Dominic Rozario, who died in 1967, was a simple peasant greatly appreciated not only for his work of teaching the faith but also for his poems and songs on saints and popular stories. The Italian missionary, Xaverian Father Marino Rigon, received appreciation for his work in promoting Christian art, literature and spirituality. Prof. Kazi Nurual Islam, head of the Department for World Religions at Dhaka university, was awarded the prize for his work in the field of promoting interreligious tolerance and dialogue. Father Rigon, a missionary since 1953 in the diocese of Khulna, where he has helped to open several schools, hospitals and churches, has said he will distribute the prize money among poor villagers he visits regularly in remote areas. The award to Fr Rigon was also in recognition of his work of translating from Bengali to Italian 40 books of poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Literature Nobel Prize Winner. Radio Veritas, based in Manila, Philippines, broadcasts in 17 Asian languages and is sponsored by the FABC, Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences. PA (Fides Service 3/3/2003 EM lines 19 Words: 243)