"According to official Vatican reports, Hariri called on the Vatican to intercede towards halting the ongoing Israeli military offensive." Since when does the world care about what the Vatican says? OF COURSE the Holy Father will work for peace, that's an inescapable part of his divinely appointed job on earth. But the anti-Catholic bigots will want the Pope to say: "peace is not important right now, what's important is that the good guys kill all the bad guys until there are none of them left". So this will just turn out to be another 'opportunity' for Catholic bashers to kick him and the Church around.
Here's a quote with that.
Vatican Condemns Israel for Attacks on Lebanon
Reuters ^ | July 14, 2006
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1665678/posts Excerpted quote:
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Pope Benedict and his aides were very worried that the developments in the Middle East risked degenerating into "a conflict with international repercussions."
"In particular, the Holy See deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation, and assures its closeness to these people who already have suffered so much to defend their independence," he told Vatican Radio.
Sodano referred to Lebanon as a "free and sovereign nation." That's a lie. The Lebanese government has been powerless to do anything about Hezbollah for some time. Hezbollah has been ruling Lebanon. Sodano also referred to Hezbollah's efforts to "defend their independence" (as Hezbollah's leader, Nasrallah, is in fact credited by Lebanese, including Christians there, with having driven the Jews out). That was also a lie. Hezbollah was not trying to "defend their independence" but did also start the last war. Israel had to occupy Lebanon in the past to defend against Lebanon's de facto government and military force (the terrorists).