Pope to Bush: Go into Iraq and you go without God

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

From Capitol Hill Blue

1600 Pennsylvania
Pope to Bush: Go into Iraq and you go without God
By CHB Staff and Wire Reports
Mar 5, 2003, 07:18

Pope John Paul II has a strong message for President George W. Bush: God is
not on your side if you invade Iraq.

But the President is expected to tell the Pope's envoy that the leader of
the world's Catholics is wrong.

Bush rejects the Vatican's argument that pre-emptive war with Iraq has no
moral justification, but officials promise that he will listen carefully
when he meets the Pop's envoy.

Bush will meet behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon with Cardinal Pio
Laghi, a former papal nuncio to the United States, who said he would relay
the pope's admonition on the war. Laghi is also an old family friend of the
Bushes.

"I'm here on a peace mission and I don't consider war to be inevitable,"
Laghi told Italian daily La Stampa in an interview from Washington published
Wednesday. "It is a very complicated task at this point, and we do realize
the president is faced with very difficult decisions. But we have hope."

Laghi said he would deliver a pope message, and that he will discuss the two
things that are dearest to the Holy See: "avoiding a war and finding a
peaceful solution to the problem of Iraq's disarmament."

He reiterated Vatican opposition to unilateral action, saying, "According to
the Holy See, the decisions must go through the United Nations. This is a
fundamental condition."

He insisted a war would widen the gap between the East and the West and
described as "encouraging" the latest moves by the Iraqi government, such as
the destruction of al samoud 2 missiles.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that Bush respects the opinions of
those who disagree with him and said the president is eager to "find out
what the message of the Pope is on this topic."

"If there are those who differ with the president on this, the president
respects their opinion and respects their ideas and respects their
thoughts," Fleischer said. "He listens. He listens carefully."

The meeting comes on Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent for Roman Catholics.
The church has asked its followers to mark the day through fasting and
prayer for peace.

The pope has said a war would be a "defeat for humanity" and that the
conflict would be neither morally nor legally justified. He wants Iraq to be
disarmed through methods short of military force.

Fleischer suggested such methods were not effective.

"Clearly, the fact that Saddam Hussein has violated the United Nations
Security Council resolutions means he is not following the legal path that
the world has set out to preserve peace," he said Tuesday.

"The president thinks the most immoral act of all would be if Saddam Hussein
would somehow transfer his weapons to terrorists who could use them against
us," Fleischer said. "And so, the president does view the use of force as a
matter of legality, as a matter of morality and as a matter of protecting
the American people."

The meeting and Laghi's message pose a thorny political problem for Bush,
who has aggressively courted Roman Catholic voters after splitting the
Catholic vote in 2000 with Democrat Al Gore. Catholics made up a quarter of
the 2000 electorate.

© Copyright 2003 Capitol Hill Blue


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