Pope expected to tell Bush he is wrong on Iraq: Vatican

AFP ^ | May 13, 2004

[Shermy]

ROME (AFP) - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II is expected to warn President George W. Bush when the two men meet on June 4 that his policy in Iraq is wrong and the actions of US troops are damaging efforts to bring religions closer together, a senior Vatican official revealed.

Cardinal Pio Laghi said the US-led occupation force in Iraq should be replaced by "a multinational presence which is not dominated by those who wanted and fought the war."

It was not enough for a military force in Iraq not to be under US command, "it must not even give the impression that it is," he said Thursday.

Laghi was the pope's envoy to Washington last year in a fruitless attempt to persuade Bush not to invade Iraq against the wishes of the majority of the United Nations and its 15-member Security Council.

Referring to revelations this month of torture and humiliating mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers, the cardinal asked "how is it possible to remain in Iraq if these abuses continue?"

Laghi said he liked the United States and "could not have imagined that this madness was possible". He said he was "astonished" at the behaviour of US troops and called for "all light to be shed on this affair, justice to be done and guarantees given so it does not happen again."

Bush is due to meet the pope on June 4 before travelling to France for ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the allied landings on the Atlantic coast on June 6, 1944, which began the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation.

Laghi said Bush had been very anxious to see the pope and had changed his schedule to make the meeting possible, but said he did not think the president wanted to make political capital out of it before the election due to take place in November.

"If ever there were a difficult time to ask for an audience with the pope it is now," he said.

The cardinal said he also expected the pope to tell Bush that his policies in the Middle East in general were not helping the cause of peace.

"We must above all build cultural understanding between peoples and I do not believe that our American friends are doing that," he said.

"Bombing mosques, going into holy places, putting women soldiers in contact with naked men shows a lack of understanding of the Muslim world which I can only call surprising," he said.

"We must build bridges with Islam, not dig trenches between us," he went on. "And we must give top priority to the Israeli-Palestinian question, which is the root cause of terrorism."

The pope would tell Bush that "the fight against terrorism must not be purely repressive and punitive but must also proceed from the elimination of its causes, which are rooted in injustice."

Bush and the pope have met twice before, but the June 4 audience will be their first since the start of the war in Iraq.

[My2Cents]

Memo to Pope: "Maybe we were wrong in the Cold War, too. Perhaps Reagan should have 'built a bridge' to Soviet communism, and left the people of Eastern Europe under their dominion."

[jpl]

The Pope was a truly great man back in the days of the Reagan administration, but he's extremely old now and not quite, shall we say, "all there". I would go so far as to say that many of the statements coming out of the Vatican nowadays probably don't even really come from him anymore, but from his younger assistants.

[Cap'n Crunch]

I believe the Pope is trying to get us to think about peace. I believe we are on the verge of another world war.

"All men shall rise one against the other, and they shall kill one another without pity."-prophecy of Elizabeth Canori-Mara

[Getsmart64]

"But that's not the real reason for the trip.

The President is looking for a way to salvage the Iraq adventure, and he suspects the Pope's the man to help him. "

Source?

[anonymous_user]

"Fight the real enemy."

[Psycho_Bunny]

Your Holiness,

Your sheep are being slaughtered.

 

[Protagoras]

I'm defending nothing. I commented on a despicable comment by a Catholic hater. I never talked about the Church. The poster accused the Pope personally. He didn't say it happened on his watch or he should have known, he said the pope was a willing protector of child rapists. It was despicable.

I'm not Catholic. Carry on. I've said my last on this subject.

[thoughtomator]

Yeah... when you're Jewish, it is bad news to see the Catholic Church go into all-out appeasement mode.

[Diddle E. Squat]

C'mon, get some perspective. The pope has spoken out against tyranny, regimes, and injustice numerous times, but he is much more hesitant to ever encourage violence as an ends. The pope is a decent man who has done much good for the world, has definitely had a positive impact on the world. However, sometimes good men make mistakes, sometimes good men with noble intent choose the wrong side of an issue. In this case the pope is wrong. A shame, and it does real damage, but in the big picture, judging on the totality, the pope is head and shoulders above leftist enablers of Castro and other totalitarians. Completely different attitudes, reasons, and goals. To compare him to dishonest seditious cretins like Levin, Leahy, Kennedy, Clinton, et. al. is ludicrous.

[nmh]

" .... anything he wishes because as far as I am concerned he is only infallible when it comes to Church doctrine, not politics."

LOL! No mere mortal is infallible according to the Bible and his own actions. Your church doctrine is also problematic and he uses this doctrine to influence politics - rightly or wrongly. Please read what you write because like him you are being illogical and hypocritical.

[Southack]

"Laghi was the pope's envoy to Washington last year in a fruitless attempt to persuade Bush not to invade Iraq against the wishes of the majority of the United Nations and its 15-member Security Council."

Such propaganda! The UN never resolved to oppose our invasion...the invasion that ENFORCED UN Resolution 1441!

[AngieGOP]

I am not here to debate religion. All I am saying is that the Pope should butt out of politics.

[Romulus]

It certainly is. Pity so many had to die for it.

[mrbillxx]

The Pope is a senile old man who is probably not even really running the Catholic Church anymore. I suspect that the Cardinals are pulling most of the strings. And there is a ton of corruption in the Vatican amongst the Cardinals.

The Church has more cleanup to do than just the priest's scandal.

[aBootes]

the actions of US troops are damaging efforts to bring religions closer together, a senior Vatican official revealed.

I do not believe that ecumenism has ever been a legitimate military objective. So I think the unnamed senior Vatican official is probably an idiot.

[thoughtomator]

That said, given the behavior and statements I have witnessed with regards to the child-rape scandal, it is accurate to assert that the Church in its official capacity engaged in a cover-up and an attempt to shield those it knew were guilty. I'm sure the motivation was the protection of its own reputation and not support for child rapists, but the end result is the same.

I'm not Catholic, but I have no particular antagonistic feelings towards Catholics. I feel in general that Christianity engenders decency and civility in human beings, and that it is a good thing. But the Vatican is corrupt head-to-toe. I know because I've been there, on the inside, and personally experienced the corruption, which verifies what is publicly known. Once the Vatican cleans up its act then I will have no problem with it. As long as it is an agent that defends evil, however, I will have a serious problem with it. The people who might exaggerate a little bit in their frustration with what claims to be not just a, but THE moral leader, are not the problem.

[Stagerite]

Islam and Christianity are very different religions. Bringing them "closer together" is not a desirable objective.

Islam and Christianity are natural enemies with common goals.

[arasina]

If only we'd put a happy face on evil, evil would place nice...

The President will meet with the Pope on June 4, the 15th anniversary of:

On June 3 and 4, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army brutally crushed prodemocracy supporters, killing hundreds of supporters, injuring another 10,000, and arresting hundreds of students and workers. Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests, summary trials, and executions; banned the foreign press; and strictly controlled the Chinese press. Although the government had quelled similar protests since the mid-1980s, the extremely violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the Chinese government.

[Skooz]

Islam and Christianity are natural enemies with common mutually exclusive goals.