All the Pope's Men (45 page)

Rumors appeared in the Italian press that the United States had asked governments, including the Holy See, to sever diplomatic relations with Iraq. French Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, gave an interview on the subject to
Corriere della
Sera
. “I’m not aware of a request and it’s not in my competence to deal with it, but certainly the Holy See will not withdraw its own nuncios and will not break any diplomatic relations," Poupard said. “[The Vatican] will always take the opportunity to maintain every possible channel of communication, above all at times of conflict. It is not wise to leave the talking to missiles." Officials at the U.S. embassy to the Holy See later told the
National Catholic Reporter
that they had made no such direct request.

March 23, 2003
The Pope delivered his Sunday Angelus address. He said: “We now turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. . . . Above all at this time we ask her for the gift of peace. To her especially, we entrust the victims of these hours of war and their families who are suffering. I feel spiritually close to them with my affection and my prayer."

March 24, 2003
John Paul received a delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in audience at the Vatican. He said: “In a world situation filled with danger and insecurity, all Christians are called to stand together in proclaiming the values of the Kingdom of God. The events of recent days make this duty all the more urgent."

John Paul II received a group of military chaplains taking part in a study course in Rome. His language that day was perhaps his most blunt in rejecting the moral legitimacy of war. He also appeared to endorse the massive street protests in Europe and elsewhere in opposition to the conflict, referring positively to a “vast contemporary movement in favor of peace." The Pope said: “Your course is taking place at a difficult moment in history, when the world once again is hearing the clash of arms. The thought of the victims and the destruction and suffering caused by armed conflict brings ever-deeper anxiety and great sorrow. By now, it should be clear to all that the use of war as a means of resolving disputes between States was rejected, even before the UN Charter, by the consciences of the majority of humanity, except in the case of legitimate defense against an aggressor. The vast contemporary movement in favor of peace—which, according to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, is more than ‘the simple absence of war’ (
Gaudium et spes
, n. 78)—demonstrates this conviction of people of every continent and culture. In this context, the influence of the different religions in sustaining the quest for peace is a reason for comfort and hope. In our view of faith, peace, even if it is the fruit of political agreements and understanding between individuals and peoples, is the gift of God, whom we should insistently invoke with prayer and penance. Without conversion of heart there is no peace! Peace can only be achieved through love! Right now we are all asked to work and pray so that war may disappear from the horizon of humanity."

In an address to the Italian bishops, Ruini expresses reservations about the pacifist movements in response to the Iraq crisis. He called for “constant discernment . . . in order that the commitment to peace not be confused with markedly different objectives and interests, or polluted by arguments that are really based upon conflict." Ruini then made an explicit plea for solidarity with the United States. “The reasons for solidarity that bind together the nations of the West retain their profound validity even after the fading of the threat of the ‘Cold War,’ as their roots are planted in a heritage of values that they still have in common, even amid undeniable differences," he said. “This solidarity finds new motivation in the great changes that are dawning on the world’s horizon and which will require constructive and harmonious responses from the West."

In a comment to the
National Catholic Reporter
, Bishop Rino Fisichella, rector of the Lateran University and a powerful Vatican advisor, expressed concern that the antiwar movement in Europe was making a mistake by setting up America as the enemy. “This direction we are moving in, of isolating the United States, is terrible," he said. Fisichella said that in Italy there are forces “manipulating" the antiwar humor of the moment to grind old ideological axes against the United States and against the West.

March 26, 2003
The Pope spoke at his regular Wednesday General Audience. He said: “Dear friends, yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Annunciation, the first of the ‘joyful mysteries’ that celebrates the Incarnation of the Son of God, Prince of Peace. As we prayed the Rosary, we meditated on this mystery, with our hearts oppressed by the news we are receiving from Iraq which is at war, without forgetting the other conflicts that rage around the globe. How important it is, during this Year of the Rosary, that we persevere in reciting the Rosary to ask for peace! I ask that it be continually recited, especially at the Marian shrines. To Mary, Queen of the Rosary, I now entrust my resolution to make a pilgrimage to her shrine at Pompeii, next 7 October, for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. May Mary’s maternal intercession obtain justice and peace for the whole world!"

A Roman newspaper reported that the Vatican was planning to offer exile to four Iraqi diplomats who had been expelled from Italy. Spokesperson Navarro-Valls told the
National Catholic Reporter
that this was “rubbish," that no request had reached the Holy See, and that the Vatican had no plans to take in the expelled diplomats. “It would be very strange," Navarro said.

March 28, 2003
A twenty-six-year-old Austrian named Andreas Siebenhoer took off from Rome’s Villa Pamphili park in a flying seat borne aloft with a parachute and a small blower. He sailed across the skies of the city for fifteen minutes, violating Vatican airspace and landing at the edge of St. Peter’s Square. Siebenhoer wanted to deliver a petition to John Paul II with more than two thousand signatures supporting the Pope’s position on the war. He was part of a group of eight young Austrians and Germans who had been making flights for peace across Europe, accompanied by a seventy-three-year-old Franciscan named Fr. Pascal Shou. In the case of the drop-in at the Vatican, however, Siebenhoer said he acted on his own. Siebenhoer was taken into custody by Italian police, then released. The group had spent the previous night at Sant’ Anselmo, the Benedictine monastery on the Aventine hill.

March 29, 2003
John Paul spoke before a group of bishops from Indonesia in Rome for their
ad limina
visit. He said: “I wish to assure you of my deep concern for the beloved Indonesian people at this moment of heightened tension in the entire world community. War must never be allowed to divide world religions. I encourage you to take this unsettling moment as an occasion to work together, as brothers committed to peace, with your own people, with those of other religious beliefs and with all men and women of good will in order to ensure understanding, cooperation and solidarity. Let us not permit a human tragedy also to become a religious catastrophe."

March 30, 2003
The Pope delivered his regular Sunday Angelus address. He said: “Today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the Gospel reminds us that God ‘so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life’ (Jn 3:16). We hear this comforting proclamation at a time when painful armed confrontation threatens the hope of humanity for a better future. Jesus affirmed ‘God so loved the world.’ So then, the Father’s love reaches every human being who lives in the world. How can one not see the obligation that springs from such an initiative of God? Conscious of such great love, the human being can only open himself to an attitude of fraternal welcome towards his fellow human beings."

April 2, 2003
John Paul II spoke at his regular Wednesday General Audience, meditating on the theme of how to make sense of God’s failure to prevent evil. He said: “The divine silence is often a cause of perplexity to the just, and even scandalous, as Job’s long lamentation attests (cf. Jb 3:1–26). However, it is not a silence that suggests absence, as if history had been left in the hands of the perverse, or the Lord were indifferent and impassive. In fact, that silence gives vent to a reaction similar to a woman in labor who gasps and pants and screams with pain. It is the divine judgement on evil, presented with images of aridity, destruction, desert, which has a living and fruitful result as its goal. In fact, the Lord brings forth a new world, an age of freedom and salvation. The eyes of the blind will be opened so that they may enjoy the brilliant light. The path will be leveled and hope will blossom, making it possible to continue to trust in God and in his future of peace and happiness. Every day the believer must be able to discern the signs of divine action even when they are hidden by the apparently monotonous, aimless flow of time. . . . Discovering this divine presence, with the eyes of faith, in space and time but also within ourselves, is a source of hope and confidence, even when our hearts are agitated and shaken ‘as the trees of the forest shake before the wind’ (Is 7:2)." As is customary, the Pope was greeted by a number of people and groups at the end of the audience, among them some Italian students preparing for careers in the hotel business. They brought the Pope a huge cake, which he received with a smile. It was decorated in the rainbow colors of the peace flag, with a large dove made of white glaze in the middle.

April 4, 2003
Two weeks into the war, the
National Catholic Reporter
carried a story reporting that the feared anti-Christian backlash in the Muslim world had not materialized. The newspaper contacted Christian and Muslim leaders in places where relations between the two faiths were strained: Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Palestine, as well as Iraq. Based on reporting from March 29 to April 2, there had not been a single case recorded of harassment or violence against Christians related to the war. In fact, sources in several traditional hotspots said Christian/Muslim relations were better than ever. All sources concurred that a principal factor had been the strong antiwar line of John Paul II, which had received extensive coverage in the Arab press and praise from Islamic leaders.

April 6, 2003
The Pope delivered his Sunday Angelus address. He said: “My thoughts go in particular to Iraq and to all those involved in the war that is being waged there. I am thinking in a special way of the defenseless civilian population in various cities which is subjected to a harsh trial. Please God that this conflict ends soon in order to make way for a new era of forgiveness, love and peace."

April 9, 2003
John Paul spoke at his regular Wednesday General Audience. He linked the war in Iraq to other conflicts in Africa. He said: “While fighting with destruction and death continues in Baghdad and other urban centers in Iraq, equally disturbing news is arriving from the African continent. In the past few days we have received information about massacres and summary executions. The scene of these crimes was the tortured Great Lakes region and, especially, an area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As I raise to God a fervent prayer for the repose of the victims’ souls, I address a heartfelt appeal to political leaders and to all people of good will to do their utmost to put an end to the violence and abuses, setting aside selfish personal and group interests, with the effective collaboration of the international community."

U.S. undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, was in Rome for meetings with Vatican officials. Bolton met separately with Stafford, Ruini, and Tauran. Each meeting lasted for approximately one hour. Bolton then held a press conference before an invited group of Italian and American journalists at the U.S. embassy to the Holy See. Bolton was asked if he had detected any softening in the Vatican’s position on the war, given that the Holy See had been a leading center of opposition. Bolton replied that he rejected that characterization of the Vatican’s position. The Holy See expressed concerns, he said, but they recognized that it is up to the civil authority to make the decision. Vatican officials respect, Bolton said, the sense of conscience with which President Bush made this decision.

The common American interest with the Vatican now, Bolton said, is to look to the future. Concretely, that means installing a government that respects the will of the Iraqi people, making sure that a humanitarian disaster is avoided in Iraq, eliminating weapons of mass destruction, and moving forward toward a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. On the humanitarian front, Bolton said the Vatican had offered some concrete suggestions as to how aid might be delivered. This was a pressing problem, since the destruction of the Ba’ath Party meant the destruction of the only instrument Iraq had for getting supplies from the Food-for-Oil program to its people. Churches and mosques in Iraq, Bolton said, may have a role to play in creating a substitute delivery system. He vowed to relay the suggestions to Washington, so that people on the ground could make the decision.

April 10, 2003
Fighting appeared to end in Iraq. Sodano issued the following statement: “The Secretariat of State, having been informed of the latest developments in Baghdad, which mark an important turning point in the Iraqi conflict and a significant opportunity for the future of the people, hopes that the military operations underway in the rest of the country will soon end, with the aim of sparing further victims, civilian or military, and further suffering for those populations. Given that the material, political and social reconstruction of the country are on the horizon, the Catholic Church is ready, through her social and charitable institutions, to lend the necessary assistance. The dioceses of Iraq are likewise available to offer their structures to contribute to an equitable distribution of humanitarian aid. The Secretariat of State hopes once again that, with the silencing of weapons, the Iraqis and the international community will know how to meet the compelling present challenge which is to definitively bring an era of peace to the Middle East."