HVK Archives: Papal ties with Islam upset Washington
Papal ties with Islam upset Washington - The Sunday Telegraph
Bruce Johnston (Rome)
()
6 July 1997
Title: Papal ties with Islam upset Washington
Author: Bruce Johnston (Rome)
Publication: The Sunday Telegraph
Date: July 6, 1997
The Vatican is courting controversial new friends in the Islamic world and
Middle East to try to increase the Catholic Church's influence.
Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, became the Pope's latest diplomatic
ally when they exchanged ambassadors earlier this year. The Pope already
has links with Saddam Hussein.
According to foreign diplomats, the Vatican has sent an envoy to Libya in
an attempt to gain credibility elsewhere in the Middle East. "The Vatican
wants to have relations with everyone," one informed diplomat said. "And
having relations with Libya does something globally for the Holy See: it
burnishes its image with the Middle East."
But the Pope's forays into foreign affairs have angered the American
government. It supports United Nations sanctions against Libya and Iraq
and has accused the Vatican of undermining its policy and of "meddling" in
international affairs.
The UN sanctions against Libya were imposed in an attempt to force Col
Gaddafi to hand over two suspects for trial in the US or Britain for the
1988 Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people.
Dr Jim Swire, who represents the British families of those who died, said:
"We would be against any move which could undermine UN sanctions against
Libya."
Last week the Pope wrote to the Palestinian lead, Yasser Arafat and
Benjamin Netanyahu, , the Israeli Prime Minister, calling on both sides to
make "the maximum effort" to reach "courageous compromises". He offered to
host peace talks in the Vatican.
Justifying its new friendships with America's enemies, the Vatican has said
it is concerned about the rights of Catholic minorities, in Islamic
countries. Chaldean Catholics represent a tenth of Iraq's population and
there are an estimated 40,000 Catholics in Libya.
The Vatican's choice of Papal Nuncio to Tripoli, Bishop Jose Sebastian
Laboa, appears to have been designed to get into Col Gaddafi's good books.
Laboa, a charming, shrewd man of 74, is a born diplomat and self-promoter,
who has forged friendships with some of the world's most conspicuous
pariahs, including the former Panamanian dictator, General Antonio Noriega.
In 1989 he infuriated America by offering Gen Noriega asylum in his
ambassador's residence.
Unlike the other ambassadors to Tripoli, who are made to wait before being
received by the leader, the Basque bishop was summoned days after his arrival.
Gaddafi sent his jet to Tripoli to whisk Laboa off to the desert and his
luxury, air-conditioned khaima, where the two are reported to have talked
for four hours.
A well-placed Vatican source said last week that Gaddafi was "riveted" to
learn about Gen Noriega.
Not unlike Saddam Hussein, with whose regime the Vatican nuncio in Baghdad,
Mgr Giuseppe Lazzarotto, is on the friendliest of terms, Col Gaddafi has
wasted little time in using the closer relations with the Pope to his own
advantage.
He has claimed that the Pope is fighting to lift sanctions against his
country.
"The Vatican decision has upset the US," Bishop Laboa told a Spanish
newspaper, "because it weakens the policy of isolation sustained by
Washington against the Tripoli regime."
Mgr Giovanni Martinelli, the Church's Vicar Apostolic in Tripoli, told the
Italian press: "To accuse Libya today of terrorism is a convenient
prejudice in order to gag Libya on the Middle East question. The Libyans
have never been terrorists."
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