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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
Politicians
beating path
to Vatican
on Iraq war
By Frank Bruni
The New York TImes
ROME: Two weeks ago, it was Joschka
Fischer, the German foreign minister.
Last week, it was Tariq Aziz, the deputy
prime minister of Iraq. This coming
weekend, if he keeps to his planned
schedule, it will be Tony Blair, the British
prime minister.
As the prospect of an American-led
military strike against Iraq looms ever -
-larger, world leaders are beating an ipcreasingly
well-worn path to Pope John,
Paul II's door to talk about the wisdom
of, and rationale for, war.
In the process, they are turning Vatican
City into a kind of diplomatic station
of the cross and demonstrating a
faith, or at "least hope, in the power of
the pope to sway international opinion
and the power of a visit with him to reflect
well on their own positionS.
"We are witnessing the latest .and
greatest global debate in a long time on
what would and would not be a just
war," said Michael Emerson, a senior
research fellow at the Center for European
Policy Studies ip.Brussels. "So the
moral authority of the pope is being so- '
licited by both sides." ,
The pope has repeatedly stated his
opposition to a war in Iraq under current
circumstances, and his conversations
with world leaders, including a
meeting here earlier this week with the
UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, allow
him to press his case.
But while the world leaders themselves
usually request these meetings, '
qften when they are here on other busi- ,
ness, the Vatican has its own interests, '
from a commitment to peace to the protection
of Roman Catholic and Christian
minorities in' predominantly
Muslim countries, including Iraq.
The' meetings themselves are intensely
private: None of the participants
ever reveals enough to make
clear precisely what the pope says.
But Vatican City serves as a dramatic
and singular stage for the officials who
travel there. Western diplomats assigned
to the Vatican say that, leaders
who meet with the pope are clearly
seekin~ to cast their concerns and deliberatIons
in a high-minded light. -
"The pope is such a respected figure, -
with such great moral authority and
prestige, that for anyone to come and ,
visit him gives them a lot of illumination
and, in some cases, for those who ,
need it, legitimacy," said R.James Nicholson,
the American ambassador to the
HolySee.
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
gence rance-
Pope John ~ul IImet in 'Rome on Friday with 1àrlqAziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister.
Aziz held a news conference 'after he
saw the pope, making prominent mention
l;>fthat meeting.
Fisèher, too, spoke to reporters following
his visit, saying that he and the
pope had a "very serious and very open
talk" about the consequences of a war in
Iraq, which, Germany opposes. "With
our deep worries and our deep skepticism,
we are very close," Fischer said, referring
to German and Vatican officials.
Blair finds himself at odds with the
Vatican about the justification for a
military strike on Iraq. But foreign
policy experts and diplomats said that
with a visit ta the pope, scheduled for
Satur-day, Blair' would send a message
that he is not dodging moral considerations
in coming to a' belief about the
possible need for~~ilitary action. '
Blair, a devout Christian whose wife
is Roman Catholic, has repeatedly
talked about the moral case for a war.
, While President George W. Bush has
not sought an audience with the pope,
, Nichelson last week arranged a visit to
the Vatican and a public speech here by
Michael Novak, a conservative American
theologian who maintains that a
war would be morally defensible.
The series of meetings between world
leaders and ~e pope show that he is not
,just the titular leader of an estimated 1.
billion Catholics worldwide. He remains,
in Western democracies, a religious
leader with unrivaled visibility
and recognition: a point of reference in
debates with clear moral dimensions.
, The meetings also show the depths of
the Vatican's objections to war in Iraq,
and are oply part o( its diplomatic efforts,
which included a recent trip by a
papal envoy to Baghdad. In many countries,
bishops and priests have echoed
the pope's expressions of opposition to :
a war, although the Vatican saidit
not a coordinated campaign.
was
esse
Vatican officials, diplomats and'
church experts said that 'the Vatican's
concerns went beyond a frequently.
stated conviction that, in the case of
Iraq, attempts at a peaceful resolution
have not been exhausted. Vatican officials
are worried about the impact of a
war in Iraq on relations between Christians
and Muslims, a matter that the
pope himself mentioned during brief
public remarks Thursday.
"They really don't want Christian
martyrs," said one Western diplomat
assigned to the Vatican, who spoke on
conalt~n of anonymity. For example,
the diplomat said, "There's a' huge
Christian minority in Pakistan that,
could be at risk."
The Reverend Drew Christiansen,
former director of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops' Office of International
Justice and Peace, said that the
pope and Vatican officials were also
looking beyond current events and trying
to lay down certain ideological and
moral markers. "It's a rejection of the
underlying rationale for war as preventive,"
Christiansen said.
Vatican officials conceded that, in the
, end, they might not be able to influence
what the United States and its allies do.
But they said that they nonetheless saw
themselves playing a crucial and spe-
,cial role in the debate, a perspective that
,-the visits of world leaders at least partly
affirm.
Friday, February 21, 2003
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