June 4, 2004

POPE CALLS FOR AMERICAN-LED REGIME CHANGE IN PALESTINE:

Pope Critical of War During Bush's Vatican Visit: President to Meet With Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi During Rome Visit (Dana Milbank and Fred Barbash, June 4, 2004, Washington Post)

Pope John Paul II Friday called on President Bush to seek a rapid return of sovereignty to Iraq, deplored the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and urged a "fuller and deeper understanding between the United States of America and Europe." [...]

Praising the recent formation of an interim Iraqi government, he continued: "May a similar hope for peace also be rekindled in the Holy Land and lead to new negotiations, dictated by a sincere and determined commitment to dialogue, between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority."


Had the Pope had his way, of course, the government of Iraq would still be Ba'athist and the killing fields would still be filling up with the innocent.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 4, 2004 1:36 PM
Comments

Amen. The Church has a huge blind spot here. The Pope and the hierarchy are too wrapped up in thinking of Islam in the 15th century to see what is going on today.

Posted by: jim hamlen at June 4, 2004 1:51 PM

I think it's more of an aversion to the righteous use of force in defense of innocent life. It's interesting to compare St. Augustine's original "just war" theory with its degenerate modern version. There was an excellent article in First Things a couple of years ago that discusses this in better detail than I ever could.

Posted by: Mike Morley at June 4, 2004 2:05 PM

"Pope John Paul II Friday called on President Bush to seek a rapid return of sovereignty to Iraq, deplored the abuse of Iraqi prisoners"

It's tough taking this criticism from a church that has in the past been reluctant to resolve the sexual molestation charges against priests.

Posted by: h-man at June 4, 2004 3:20 PM

Where are the Pope's legion's?

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at June 4, 2004 4:29 PM

Let's not forget we are dealing with an aged, infirm Pope who relies too heavily on his Euro-Cardinals.

Posted by: Peter B at June 4, 2004 5:13 PM

We should remember the Pope's huge role in the cold war... Gorbachev has been quoted to say the west's victory would have been impossible without him...

Posted by: David Scott at June 5, 2004 4:03 AM

Mr. Scott:

Agreed, which makes his current siding with the enemies of freedom all the more distressing.

Posted by: oj at June 5, 2004 7:32 AM

The Pope has surrounded himself not with Euro-Cardinals, but mainly third-world Cardinals.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at June 7, 2004 3:01 PM
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