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INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 VATICAN 000078
SIPDIS
FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM THE CHARGE D’AFFAIRES
EO 12958 DECL: 6/26/2019
TAGS PREL, PGOV, VT
SUBJECT: HOLY SEE: SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT’S JULY 10 VISIT
REF: A. A) VATICAN 72 B. B) VATICAN 63 C. C) VATICAN 59 D. D) VATICAN 52 E. E) VATICAN 38
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CLASSIFIED BY: Julieta Valls Noyes, CDA, EXEC, State. REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) Mr. President, it’s an honor to welcome you and your family to the Vatican, the world’s smallest sovereign state, and one with global clout.
Summary
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¶1. (C/NF) Holy See officials also are pleased you are visiting. Your meeting with Pope Benedict XVI will be an opportunity to discuss our shared commitments to overarching goals such as peace, justice, development, human dignity, and inter-faith understanding. From the Vatican’s perspective, it will also provide a forum to discuss sensitive bioethical issues in a mutually respectful way. In your meeting with him, or possibly with other Vatican officials on the margins, you may cover other topics of special interest, such as the Middle East, Iraq, immigration, and the environment. Your discussions at the Holy See will help deepen our mutual collaboration on issues around the world. End Summary.
Context for Your Visit
----------------------
¶2. (C/NF) The Vatican is second only to the United States in the number of countries with which it enjoys diplomatic relations (188 and 177 respectively), and there are Catholic priests, nuns and lay people in every country on the planet. As a result, the Holy See is interested and well informed about developments all over the globe. This year marks the 25th anniversary of formal relations between the U.S. and Holy See. The Holy See is the global government of the Catholic Church, which it operates from Vatican City State, a sovereign territory of a quarter of a square mile.
¶3. (C/NF) The Holy See in many ways welcomed your election, as demonstrated by the Pope’s immediate letter of congratulation. Vatican officials have been impressed by many of your initiatives, especially on foreign policy. The Vatican newspaper, the “Osservatore Romano,” has welcomed your positions on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, outreach to Muslims, disarmament, Cuba and the environment. The Holy See has appreciated your multilateralism and focus on human rights, including your decisions to run for the Human Rights Council and close the Guantanamo detainee facility. Nevertheless, although it does not generally express them publicly, the Vatican also has profound concerns about your Administration’s positions on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. The Vatican has allowed the American Catholic Church to take the lead in enunciating these concerns. This is a tactical decision, and should not be interpreted as a divergence of views between Rome and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The Vatican trusts the USCCB, is proud of the work that Catholic organizations do in the U.S., and relies on the generosity of American Catholics to support the Vatican and Catholic causes worldwide. On balance, the Vatican regards your Presidency favorably and will seek to focus more on the areas of policy convergence between us than on the issues that divide us.
Pope Benedict XVI
-----------------
¶4. (C/NF) The Pope has had a rocky year, having confronted controversies about Catholic-Jewish relations and his views on AIDS prevention, and breakdowns in internal Vatican communications related to the controversies. At the same time, he also took crucial, successful trips to the Middle East and Africa. He is looking forward to meeting you. The Pope genuinely likes Americans and the United States, and enjoyed his visit there last year. He admires the U.S. model of secularism, where the church and state are separate but which he says “allows for professing belief in God and respects the public role of religion and churches.” The Pope has made promotion of international religious freedom a central objective of his papacy, and appreciates U.S. support for this goal. As the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and enjoying
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respect as well from non-Catholics, the Pope wields an unparalleled moral megaphone. He uses it carefully, speaking publicly in generic, neutral terms about the need for peace and social justice rather than criticizing individual states. Behind closed doors, he sometimes takes on specific issues more directly. In that context, a Vatican official had told us that the Pope probably will raise abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and social justice issues -- especially immigration -- with you.
Bioethical Issues
-----------------
¶5. (C/NF) The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is wrong. Vatican officials grudgingly accept that abortion is legal in the U.S., but oppose making it more widely available. Internationally, the Vatican would forcefully oppose USG advocacy of legalizing abortion elsewhere, financing foreign abortions, or making abortion an international “reproductive right.” The Vatican would welcome an honest, respectful dialogue with the United States on abortion. Vatican officials followed your Notre Dame speech closely. While clearly not agreeing with everything you said, they were very pleased by your calls to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, make adoption more available, and provide support for pregnant women. They appreciated your commitment to “honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion,” and especially welcomed the call for a sensible conscience clause for health care workers.
¶6. (C/NF) The Vatican opposes embryonic stem cell research on the grounds that it leads to the destruction of human embryos. It has no objection to non-embryonic stem cell research. As new techniques now allow research with adult stem cells, the Vatican says the use of embryonic stem cells is not justified scientifically either.
Financial Crisis, the Poor, and Immigration
-------------------------------------------
¶7. (C/NF) The Vatican has been very vocal about protecting the world’s most vulnerable people from harm caused by the global financial crisis. In a letter to UK PM Gordon Brown, for example, the Pope wrote, “Development aid, including the commercial and financial conditions favorable to less developed countries and the cancellation of the external debt of the poorest and most indebted countries, has not been the cause of the crisis and out of fundamental justice must not be its victim.” The Vatican criticizes “consumerist” societies, strongly supports the UN Millennium Development Goals, and hopes all countries will redouble efforts to meet their MDG pledges. The Vatican has long supported freer migration between nations to permit the poor to begin new lives. The USCCB has made immigration reform a priority in the U.S., and the Pope will likely mention this in his discussions with you. The Pope is expected to issue the second “encyclical” (letter addressed to the whole world about pressing moral issues) of his papacy sometime during the week before your meeting. It will cover social justice concerns, and the Pope will likely mention it to you. (Embassy will forward a copy to the White House as soon as it is available.)
Food Security
-------------
¶8. (C/NF) Similarly, the Vatican is very worried about declining nutrition in the poorest countries. The Vatican has not taken a formal position on genetically modified (GM) crops -- some Church leaders oppose them because GM technology is mostly in the hands of multinational corporations, while others support their use as an element in a larger strategy to address world hunger. In his World Food Day message in October 2008, the Pope noted that the world can produce enough food to meet increasing needs, but said factors like speculation in foodstuffs, corrupt public officials, and growing investments in weapons prevented food from reaching the hungry. He called on world leaders to conclude negotiations to ensure food security, and to pursue relations “based on the reciprocal exchange of knowledge, values, rapid assistance and respect.”
Environmental Issues
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¶9. (C/NF) The Pope speaks frequently about the importance of caring for God’s creation. Vatican City is the world’s first carbon-neutral state, offsetting its emissions through use of renewable energy and a reforestation project. It has not, however, taken a position on carbon emissions trade. The Vatican is now using solar energy to power some facilities and is reducing its energy consumption overall, planning to be 20% energy self-sufficient by 2020. The Holy See is an active observer at the UN Environment Program, Food and Agriculture Organization and other international fora, and will participate in the December Copenhagen Conference also as an observer. The Pope has even joined with other religious leaders like Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to issue moral appeals to their faithful on humanity’s responsibility to be good stewards of nature. The Vatican’s environmental message is consistent: nature is a gift from God, so human beings have a responsibility to care for and not to abuse it.
Arms Reduction
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¶10. (C/NF) The Vatican welcomed your call to eliminate nuclear weapons, and has long advocated arms reductions and non-proliferation. The Holy See was one of the initial signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008 - and ratified it the same day. (The Vatican of course has no such weapons itself and becomes party to such agreements to serve as a moral example.) The Pope has advocated the elimination of land mines, and the Holy See is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Speaking at the UN in May, the Vatican envoy reaffirmed the Vatican’s support for nuclear non-proliferation and outlined five steps for nations to take to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat: adherence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, opening negotiations for a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, ending reliance on nuclear arms as part of military policy among nuclear states, giving the International Atomic Energy Association oversight over peaceful use of nuclear energy and expanding it role to include non-proliferation, and developing a new international agreement on nuclear fuel.
Inter-faith Understanding
-------------------------
¶11. (C/NF) The Vatican praised your Cairo speech, especially the sections on religious freedom and diversity, the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and Iran. The Vatican itself has worked for decades on improving understanding with the Islamic world, including through a pontifical institute for the study of Arabic and Islam. It stepped up inter-faith discussions after the September 11 attacks, and then again following the negative Muslim reaction to a 2006 speech by the Pope that some argued demeaned Islam. Key dialogues are with: the “group of 138” - moderate Muslim scholars and clerics - supported by Jordan; Iranian clerics; Al-Azar University in Cairo, which co-hosted your speech; and Saudi authorities. The Vatican’s primary objective for these talks is to promote religious freedom. The Holy See does not believe theological agreements with Islam are possible, but is convinced that better mutual knowledge will allay suspicions and facilitate peaceful co-existence, which they consider an even higher goal than simple “tolerance.” Another Vatican goal is supporting pragmatic inter-faith cooperation on social welfare programs. The Vatican believes governments should ensure religious freedom, but not be directly involved in interreligious dialogue (which by its nature should be between religious leaders).
Middle East Peace Process
-------------------------
¶12. (C/NF) Peace in the “Holy Land” is one of the Vatican’s top priorities, and was one of the central themes of the Pope’s May visit to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Despite criticism from some media and extremists, the trip was substantively successful. The Pope avoided any major mis-steps (always a difficult prospect for a Pontiff in visiting this area) and delivered the message that a two-state solution is the key to peace. He emphasized that the use of violence to achieve political objectives is morally unacceptable. He called for
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inter-faith dialogue and protection of Christian minorities. His messages largely mirror the U.S. approach to the region. This provides opportunities for further engagement with the U.S. in advancing peace initiatives there.
Iraq and Christians
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¶13. (C/NF) The Holy See publicly opposed U.S. intervention in Iraq. Once fighting began, however, the Vatican focus shifted to securing peace and justice, rebuilding the Iraqi economy, and protecting minority Christian communities. Holy See officials welcome your proposals for responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops, provided this does not create a security vacuum, particularly in Christian areas. The Vatican appreciates U.S. resettlement of the most vulnerable Iraqi victims of persecution -- including many Christians-- but seeks to avoid large-scale exodus of Christians from that country. (Regional bishops estimate as many as half of the region’s 300-400,000 Chaldean Christians have left, and believe they will not return.) The Vatican was deeply concerned last fall that quotas set for Iraq’s provincial elections system might reduce Christian representation in local governments, fueling further emigration. It took the unusual step of formally asking the USG to press the Iraqis to increase the quotas for Christians. Despite a boycott threat, Christians ultimately participated in the provincial elections. The future of the Christian communities in Iraq will remain high on the Vatican agenda before and after the U.S. military drawdown.
Africa
------
¶14. (C/NF) The Pope travelled to Africa in March. He grabbed headlines with an interview he gave en route saying that the use of condoms contributed to the spread of AIDS. The Vatican later clarified the Pope’s comments, saying that condoms are not always 100% effective and noting studies that show condom distribution increases promiscuity. Benedict XVI has called on world leaders to pay special attention to the needs of the Continent - where one in four people suffer from chronic hunger -- this year. In a letter to the German President, Pope Benedict wrote that the “support of the international community is needed...precisely because the current financial and economic crisis is particularly affecting Africa.” The Pontiff has pledged the Church’s continued assistance to the weakest sectors of Africa’s population. (The UN estimates that Catholic charities provide 17% of health care in sub-Saharan Africa; the Church also runs schools, homes for the aged, re-integration centers for child soldiers and other programs there.) Bishops from Africa will gather in Rome in October for a month to discuss needs on the continent.
Cuba
----
¶15. (C/NF) The Church is the only major institution in Cuba that is independent from the government. The Vatican hopes for a transition to democracy in Cuba, but is not at the forefront of that battle because it is more concerned about protecting its small space for operations in Cuba. The Vatican opposes the U.S. embargo, which it believes hurts poor Cubans disproportionately. It welcomed your decision to remove limits on family visitation and remittances. Vatican officials believe that exchanging the five Cuban spies imprisoned in the U.S. for political prisoners in Cuba is worth discussing, and have urged the U.S. to grant visas to the wives of the spies to allow them to visit.
Turkey EU Accession
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¶16. (C/NF) As Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope had expressed uneasiness about the notion Turkish accession to the EU. The Holy See’s position now is that as a non-EU member the Vatican has no role in promoting or vetoing Turkey’s membership. The Vatican might prefer to see Turkey develop a special relationship short of membership with the EU, but Vatican Secretary of State (Prime Minister-equivalent) Bertone has stated that Turkey should become a member if it meets all the EU
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criteria - including full protection of human rights and religious freedoms.
Iran
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¶17. (C/NF) The Holy See is deeply concerned about the recent violence and ongoing human rights violations in Iran. It has been publicly silent to date on the current crisis, in part to preserve its ability to act as an intermediary if an international crisis emerges. (The Vatican helped secure the release of British sailors detained in Iranian waters in April 2007.) It is unclear how much clout the Vatican really has with Iran, however. NOYES
HOLY SEE: SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT’S JULY 10 VISIT
AN INVENTORY OF THE VATICAN'S INTERFAITH DIALOGUES
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 VATICAN 000134
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR G, S/P, S/GPI, AND S/SRMC
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2019
TAGS: PREL PHUM KIRF SOCI SCUL VT
SUBJECT: AN INVENTORY OF THE VATICAN'S INTERFAITH DIALOGUES
REF: A. 08 VATICAN 87
¶B. VATICAN 124
¶C. 08 USUN 1126
¶D. VATICAN 106
¶E. VATICAN 122
¶F. VATICAN 100
¶G. VATICAN 126
VATICAN 00000134 001.2 OF 003
CLASSIFIED BY: Julieta Valls Noyes, DCM, EXEC, State.
REASON: 1.4 (b)
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Vatican is a leader or partner in many
inter-religious dialogues, primarily with the "Abrahamic"
religions - Islam, Judaism, and of course, other Christians.
Vatican leaders are also beginning to reach out to Asian faiths.
This cable describes the Vatican's primary, organized
dialogues. Septels: A) analyze why the Vatican pursues
interfaith dialogue, and B) propose USG-Holy See collaboration
in support of such discussions. End Summary.
Dialogues with Muslim Communities and Nations
---------------------------------------------
¶2. (SBU) Formal, modern-day Vatican dialogue with the Muslim
world goes back for over a decade. It intensified following
September 11, 2001, and again after the controversy that erupted
over Pope Benedict XVI's September 2006 address in Regensberg.
Some of these dialogues have delivered concrete results; others
remain largely symbolic. Following are the formal,
institutionalized Vatican dialogues with Muslims:
-- Partnership with the Jordanian Royal Institute of Inter-Faith
Studies. Held its first colloquium on "Religions and Civil
Society" in Rome in 2009. Will meet every two years. The next
meeting will be in 2011 in Amman or Rome. (Note: This
institute is distinct from the Aal al-Bayt institute which is
part of the Catholic Muslim Forum). (See www.riifs.org.)
-- "A Common Word": The Catholic-Muslim Forum: First met in
Rome November 4-6, 2008. Muslim delegates - both Sunni and Shia
- selected by the Amman-based Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic
Thought. Final declaration called for religious freedom,
protection of minorities, respect for religious symbols, and
equal rights. Will meet every two years: 2010 Forum may meet in
Jordan or another Muslim-majority country (ref a). (See
www.acommonword.com.)
-- Saudi-sponsored dialogue: Initiated by Saudi King, through
the Mecca-based Muslim World League (a.k.a. the Rabita). King
of Spain hosted the first meeting in Madrid on July 18, 2008.
Second meeting held on margins of 2008 UNGA, attended by
then-President Bush and eighty-plus other senior officials.
Participants criticized terrorists who claimed to act in the
name of religion. Two additional meetings held in Vienna and
Geneva; latest resulting in agreement to create secretariat --
and possibly new center -- for interreligious dialogue in
Vienna, Austria (refs B and C). (See www.world-dialogue.org )
-- The Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions
First held in 2003. Meets in Astana, Kazakhstan every three
years. The next meeting will be in 2012. (See
www.religions-congress.org.)
-- Coordination Committee of the PCID and the World Islamic Call
Society (WICS) of Libya. The focus of this meeting is relations
between Muslims and Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, where the
WICS is active. First held in 2002. Meets every two years in
Tripoli or Rome. Next meeting in 2010.
-- The Joint Committee for Dialogue between the PCID and the
Permanent Committee of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, for
Dialogue between Monotheistic Religions. First held in 1998.
Meets at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo every year.
-- Dialogue with Center for Inter-Religious Dialogue of the
Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Iran. This
Vatican partnership with Iran's Islamic Guidance Ministry dates
back to 1995. The subject of a recent meeting was "Human
dignity with special reference to bioethics." Meets in Tehran
every two years. The next meeting is in 2010. (See
http://en.icro.ir .)
-- The Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee of the International
Forum for Dialogue. First held in 1995. Meets in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, every three years. Next meeting in 2012. (See
www.dialogueonline.org.)
VATICAN 00000134 002.2 OF 003
Other Avenues for Catholic-Muslim Encounters
--------------------------------------------
¶3. (SBU) The Holy See and the Arab League established diplomatic
relations in 2000. The League has a representative to the Holy
See based in Rome, and the Vatican's representative to the
League is the nuncio in Cairo. The Holy See and the League
signed a Memorandum of Understanding on April 23, 2009, to
strengthen joint projects to promote peace and dialogue,
especially on the political and cultural levels. The Memorandum
was signed by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Holy See's
Secretary of Relations with States, and Arab League Secretary
General Amr Moussa. Vatican officials note that the MOU has not
yet led to any concrete initiatives or dialogues.
¶4. (C) The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue
signed a "Declaration of Intent" with the Department for
Religious Affairs of the Turkish Prime Minister's Cabinet on
April 25, 2002. Its aim was to promote inter-religious
dialogue, in particular by facilitating collaboration between
academic institutions. Progress in discussions with the Turks
is not coming quickly. The Vatican is disappointed that the
former Church of Paul of Tarsus is now a Turkish government-run
museum. The Vatican also supports Orthodox demands to reopen
the Halki seminary in Turkey, have the GOT recognize the
Ecumenical Patriarch as an international religious leader, and
grant greater religious freedoms to Orthodox and other
Christians.
¶5. (SBU) Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the
Inter-Religious Dialogue Council, travelled to Indonesia in
November 2009. It was the first visit of the Vatican's top
dialogue official to Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority
country in the world -- 206 million out of a population of 240
million. (There are 7 million Catholics in the country.)
Vatican and Indonesian officials continue to discuss concrete
initiatives for follow-up to this visit.
The Other Monotheistic Faiths: Jews and other Christians
--------------------------------------------- -----------
¶6. (SBU) Unlike relations with Islam, Vatican relations with
Jews are characterized by substantial theological common ground
and historic roots. Discussions between the two religions are
ongoing and broad-based. They are often intersected by
politics, and sometimes hurt by missteps. The Vatican's
long-standing dialogue initiatives with the Jews prospered in
the years since the Vatican II Council removed obstacles to good
relations. They took a big hit in January 2009, however, when
the Vatican restored communion to a schismatic Catholic group
that included a Holocaust-denying bishop. After considerable
effort by the Vatican and the Pope himself, relations have been
largely mended and were solidified with the Pope's visit to the
Holy Land in May 2009. Nevertheless, the proposed conferral of
sainthood on WWII-era Pope Pius XII and access by historians to
the archives of his pontificate are recurring irritants in the
relationship (ref D).
¶7. (SBU) Meanwhile, Vatican officials speak constantly with
followers of other Christian faiths in ecumenical dialogue
intended to overcome divisions between Christians. Indeed, the
Vatican has a separate Pontifical Council for Christian Unity
(which for historical reasons also covers dialogue with Jews).
These discussions have their ups and downs. While the Vatican
move in November 2009 to welcome disaffected Anglicans to the
Catholic Church dealt a blow to ecumenical understanding (ref
E), the rift is healing in part because few Anglicans will
probably take advantage of the Vatican offer. Meanwhile,
relations with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow -- who
commands the allegiance of a large number of Orthodox and is
thus arguably more influential than Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew -- have improved. (ref F). This has allowed Moscow
and the Vatican to upgrade their "special character" to "full
diplomatic" relations (ref G).
¶8. (SBU) Ultimately, the monotheistic nature and shared historic
roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- all "people of the
book" - make dialogue between these three religions easier for
the Vatican in some ways than discussions with other religions.
An important interfaith meeting including senior leaders of the
world's major monotheistic religions, Christians (Catholic and
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Orthodox), Jews and Muslims, took place in Seville, Spain,
December 6-8, 2009. The King of Spain's "Three Cultures, Three
Faiths" Foundation sponsored the event. (VATICAN 124).
Outreach to Asian Faiths
------------------------
¶9. (C) Despite the difficulty for the Vatican of finding common
ground with polytheistic religions, Holy See officials are
starting to do just that in an effort to support peace,
religious freedom, human rights, and local solutions to local
problems (see septel). Cardinal Tauran travelled to India in
June 2009 for initial dialogue with Hindus. Tauran's goal was
to go beyond the positive assurances that had characterized
previous meetings with Hindu leaders. Specifically, he sought
to bridge the gap between his Indian interlocutors' stated
goodwill and the continuing hostility toward Christians in parts
of India like Orissa, especially by some Hindu nationalists.
The Vatican also raised concerns about Indian anti-conversion
laws -- although they have not been enforced. Cardinal Tauran
also traveled to Japan in August 2009, to initiate discussions
with Buddhists and other Asian faiths.
¶10. (SBU) Comment: Tauran acknowledges quietly that the Vatican
has not paid sufficient attention to relations with Asian
religions. He is not an expert on polytheistic religions and is
unlikely to find -- or even seek -- common theological ground
with their precepts. Instead, as he and his Council increase
their outreach to these communities, they will challenge their
interlocutors to remove obstacles to the enjoyment of religious
freedom for all. End comment.
Comment
-------
¶11. (C) The number and scope of the Vatican's inter-religious
dialogues is unparalleled by that of any other church or
organization in the world. The dialogues are already effective
in preventing or smoothing over misunderstandings and tensions.
The big question is how to translate into concrete actions the
high moral principles that the world's major religions bring to
the dialogue table. Septel includes proposals for USG
engagement with the Vatican in support of interreligious
understanding and action.
DIAZ
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TAGS PREL, SCUL, VT, IS
SUBJECT: (C) VATICAN BACKS AWAY FROM DEAL WITH INTERNATIONAL
HOLOCAUST TASK FORCE
REF: A. VATICAN 25 B. VATICAN 99
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CLASSIFIED BY: Julieta Valls Noyes, DCM, EXEC, State. REASON:
1.4 (b) 1. (C) Summary: On October 13, the Holy See walked back from a prior written agreement to become an observer on the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF). The decision may been taken by the Vatican’s relatively inexperienced new deputy foreign minister, and if so, would not be the first time he has complicated Vatican foreign relations. But the Vatican may also be pulling back due to concerns about ITF pressure to declassify records from the WWII-era pontificate of Pope Pius XII. Regardless of the cause, the ITF will continue to pursue closer ties with the Holy See in the months ahead. End Summary.
High Hopes Dashed
-----------------
¶2. (C) Three members of the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) visited Rome this week to finalize arrangements with the Holy See to become an ITF observer. However, over lunch on October 13, the team members told the Austrian Ambassador and UK and U.S. DCM’s that the plan had fallen apart completely that morning due to Vatican back-pedaling. Team members -- Austrian Ambassador Ferdinand Trauttsmandorff, U.S. Professor Steve Katz of the Elie Wiesel Center at Boston University, and Dina Porat, the Israeli academic advisor to the ITF -- expressed considerable disappointment about the unexpected set-back.
¶3. (C) They were especially chagrined, Trauttsmandorff said, because the Vatican had first offered more than the ITF asked then rescinded its commitment. Specifically, the ITF had suggested during a February visit to Rome that the Vatican enter into a “special arrangement” with the body. The February talks and follow up discussions went very well (ref a). Subsequently, the then-Deputy Foreign Minister-equivalent at the Holy See, Monsignor Pietro Parolin, wrote to the ITF to indicate that the Vatican wanted more than a “special arrangement” and was prepared to become an ITF observer. (Note: It’s unclear whether Parolin suggested permanent observer or observer country status for the Vatican. End Note)
New Vatican Team Disappoints
----------------------------
¶4. (C) On arrival in Rome in October, though, the ITF had to deal with a new team, as the highly-regarded Parolin had been promoted and sent as Nuncio to Venezuela. Parolin’s successor, Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, saw the ITF group instead, at what the ITF team expected to be the final meeting before signing an observer agreement. Surprising the ITF, Balestrero also invited a representative from the Vatican Archives, Msgr. Chappin, and the Holy See’s chief negotiator for the long-delayed Vatican-Israel Fundamental Agreement, Father David Jaeger.
¶5. (C) All three men, Trauttsmandorff said, evinced considerable discomfort with the idea of ITF observer status. Balestrero argued that the Vatican needed to study the implications of the status further before committing, focusing on legalistic impediments that Parolin had already dismissed. Jaeger was hostile overall to the ITF, Porat said. She fiercely criticized his inclusion, saying he had no role to play in a discussion of the ITF’s relationship with the Vatican. XXXXXXXXXXXX Porat said that if Jaeger was so rigid about closer ties with the ITF while Austria held its rotating chair, no progress would be possible next year when Israel chairs the body. Trauttsmandorff was less harsh than his colleague but allowed the Jaeger’s involvement in the meeting was not constructive. XXXXXXXXXXXX
Connection to the Papal Archives?
---------------------------------
¶6. (C) The three ITF visitors agreed that Chappin, who had previously been more open to dialogue with them, was very defensive at the October 13 meeting. He believed that the ITF would ask the Archives to release ahead of schedule the documents from the papacy of Pius XII, the World War II-era Pope. (Note: The Vatican releases the documents from each pontificate as a whole. End Note) DCM said that Father Norbert Hofmann, Secretary of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with Jews, had told her the preceding week that the files from the entire papacy would be ready for declassification in about five years. Katz thought this was far too rosy a
VATICAN 00000106 002.2 OF 002
scenario given that only six-eight researchers are now reviewing the documents. Although this number is up from the one-two working on them a year ago, he thought it was insufficient to catalog and review the 16 million documents from the Pius XII Papacy.
¶7. (C) The ITF members acknowledged their wish to gain access to the Pius XII files as soon as possible. Nevertheless, they also accepted the Vatican’s arguments, shared by DCM, that ordained clergy must review them first given the possibility that the files contain confessional documents from individual Catholics. Trauttsmandorff insisted, however, that the ITF sought a relationship with the Vatican not only to get access to the Vatican Archives, but also to work jointly with Catholic Church leaders in many countries on anti-racism and remembrance education.
Now What?
---------
¶8. (C) Despite the disappointment, the ITF members were determined to find a way to move ahead with the Vatican. They concluded that they must now educate new Deputy Foreign Minister Balestrero about the ITF and its role, just as they had done with his predecessor, Parolin. They would also reach out to friends in the Vatican, such as Cardinal Kasper, to exert influence on their behalf. UK DCM indicated that HMG would also express support for ITF goals in discussions with Vatican officials, as did U.S. DCM. The team members left discouraged but committed to keep their eyes on the long-term goal.
Comment
-------
¶9. (C) Unfortunately, the ITF is only the latest group to run into problems caused by the recent change of personnel at the Vatican Foreign Ministry - others, including this embassy (ref B), have experienced similar problems on other issues. What remains to be seen is whether the ITF’s problems are the results of Msgr. Balestrero’s growing pains or caused by deeper Vatican uneasiness related to declassification of their Archives. The ITF team did not believe the Vatican was sending - via the decision to slow progress on the ITF observer status -- a subtle message to Israel about the need for progress in the Fundamental Agreement talks. Time will tell. DIAZ
HOLY SEE: SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT’S JULY 10 VISIT
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FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM THE CHARGE D’AFFAIRES
EO 12958 DECL: 6/26/2019
TAGS PREL, PGOV, VT
SUBJECT: HOLY SEE: SCENESETTER FOR THE PRESIDENT’S JULY 10 VISIT
REF: A. A) VATICAN 72 B. B) VATICAN 63 C. C) VATICAN 59 D. D) VATICAN 52 E. E) VATICAN 38
VATICAN 00000078 001.2 OF 005
CLASSIFIED BY: Julieta Valls Noyes, CDA, EXEC, State. REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) Mr. President, it’s an honor to welcome you and your family to the Vatican, the world’s smallest sovereign state, and one with global clout.
Summary
-------
¶1. (C/NF) Holy See officials also are pleased you are visiting. Your meeting with Pope Benedict XVI will be an opportunity to discuss our shared commitments to overarching goals such as peace, justice, development, human dignity, and inter-faith understanding. From the Vatican’s perspective, it will also provide a forum to discuss sensitive bioethical issues in a mutually respectful way. In your meeting with him, or possibly with other Vatican officials on the margins, you may cover other topics of special interest, such as the Middle East, Iraq, immigration, and the environment. Your discussions at the Holy See will help deepen our mutual collaboration on issues around the world. End Summary.
Context for Your Visit
----------------------
¶2. (C/NF) The Vatican is second only to the United States in the number of countries with which it enjoys diplomatic relations (188 and 177 respectively), and there are Catholic priests, nuns and lay people in every country on the planet. As a result, the Holy See is interested and well informed about developments all over the globe. This year marks the 25th anniversary of formal relations between the U.S. and Holy See. The Holy See is the global government of the Catholic Church, which it operates from Vatican City State, a sovereign territory of a quarter of a square mile.
¶3. (C/NF) The Holy See in many ways welcomed your election, as demonstrated by the Pope’s immediate letter of congratulation. Vatican officials have been impressed by many of your initiatives, especially on foreign policy. The Vatican newspaper, the “Osservatore Romano,” has welcomed your positions on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, outreach to Muslims, disarmament, Cuba and the environment. The Holy See has appreciated your multilateralism and focus on human rights, including your decisions to run for the Human Rights Council and close the Guantanamo detainee facility. Nevertheless, although it does not generally express them publicly, the Vatican also has profound concerns about your Administration’s positions on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. The Vatican has allowed the American Catholic Church to take the lead in enunciating these concerns. This is a tactical decision, and should not be interpreted as a divergence of views between Rome and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The Vatican trusts the USCCB, is proud of the work that Catholic organizations do in the U.S., and relies on the generosity of American Catholics to support the Vatican and Catholic causes worldwide. On balance, the Vatican regards your Presidency favorably and will seek to focus more on the areas of policy convergence between us than on the issues that divide us.
Pope Benedict XVI
-----------------
¶4. (C/NF) The Pope has had a rocky year, having confronted controversies about Catholic-Jewish relations and his views on AIDS prevention, and breakdowns in internal Vatican communications related to the controversies. At the same time, he also took crucial, successful trips to the Middle East and Africa. He is looking forward to meeting you. The Pope genuinely likes Americans and the United States, and enjoyed his visit there last year. He admires the U.S. model of secularism, where the church and state are separate but which he says “allows for professing belief in God and respects the public role of religion and churches.” The Pope has made promotion of international religious freedom a central objective of his papacy, and appreciates U.S. support for this goal. As the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and enjoying
VATICAN 00000078 002.2 OF 005
respect as well from non-Catholics, the Pope wields an unparalleled moral megaphone. He uses it carefully, speaking publicly in generic, neutral terms about the need for peace and social justice rather than criticizing individual states. Behind closed doors, he sometimes takes on specific issues more directly. In that context, a Vatican official had told us that the Pope probably will raise abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and social justice issues -- especially immigration -- with you.
Bioethical Issues
-----------------
¶5. (C/NF) The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is wrong. Vatican officials grudgingly accept that abortion is legal in the U.S., but oppose making it more widely available. Internationally, the Vatican would forcefully oppose USG advocacy of legalizing abortion elsewhere, financing foreign abortions, or making abortion an international “reproductive right.” The Vatican would welcome an honest, respectful dialogue with the United States on abortion. Vatican officials followed your Notre Dame speech closely. While clearly not agreeing with everything you said, they were very pleased by your calls to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, make adoption more available, and provide support for pregnant women. They appreciated your commitment to “honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion,” and especially welcomed the call for a sensible conscience clause for health care workers.
¶6. (C/NF) The Vatican opposes embryonic stem cell research on the grounds that it leads to the destruction of human embryos. It has no objection to non-embryonic stem cell research. As new techniques now allow research with adult stem cells, the Vatican says the use of embryonic stem cells is not justified scientifically either.
Financial Crisis, the Poor, and Immigration
-------------------------------------------
¶7. (C/NF) The Vatican has been very vocal about protecting the world’s most vulnerable people from harm caused by the global financial crisis. In a letter to UK PM Gordon Brown, for example, the Pope wrote, “Development aid, including the commercial and financial conditions favorable to less developed countries and the cancellation of the external debt of the poorest and most indebted countries, has not been the cause of the crisis and out of fundamental justice must not be its victim.” The Vatican criticizes “consumerist” societies, strongly supports the UN Millennium Development Goals, and hopes all countries will redouble efforts to meet their MDG pledges. The Vatican has long supported freer migration between nations to permit the poor to begin new lives. The USCCB has made immigration reform a priority in the U.S., and the Pope will likely mention this in his discussions with you. The Pope is expected to issue the second “encyclical” (letter addressed to the whole world about pressing moral issues) of his papacy sometime during the week before your meeting. It will cover social justice concerns, and the Pope will likely mention it to you. (Embassy will forward a copy to the White House as soon as it is available.)
Food Security
-------------
¶8. (C/NF) Similarly, the Vatican is very worried about declining nutrition in the poorest countries. The Vatican has not taken a formal position on genetically modified (GM) crops -- some Church leaders oppose them because GM technology is mostly in the hands of multinational corporations, while others support their use as an element in a larger strategy to address world hunger. In his World Food Day message in October 2008, the Pope noted that the world can produce enough food to meet increasing needs, but said factors like speculation in foodstuffs, corrupt public officials, and growing investments in weapons prevented food from reaching the hungry. He called on world leaders to conclude negotiations to ensure food security, and to pursue relations “based on the reciprocal exchange of knowledge, values, rapid assistance and respect.”
Environmental Issues
VATICAN 00000078 003.2 OF 005
--------------------
¶9. (C/NF) The Pope speaks frequently about the importance of caring for God’s creation. Vatican City is the world’s first carbon-neutral state, offsetting its emissions through use of renewable energy and a reforestation project. It has not, however, taken a position on carbon emissions trade. The Vatican is now using solar energy to power some facilities and is reducing its energy consumption overall, planning to be 20% energy self-sufficient by 2020. The Holy See is an active observer at the UN Environment Program, Food and Agriculture Organization and other international fora, and will participate in the December Copenhagen Conference also as an observer. The Pope has even joined with other religious leaders like Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to issue moral appeals to their faithful on humanity’s responsibility to be good stewards of nature. The Vatican’s environmental message is consistent: nature is a gift from God, so human beings have a responsibility to care for and not to abuse it.
Arms Reduction
--------------
¶10. (C/NF) The Vatican welcomed your call to eliminate nuclear weapons, and has long advocated arms reductions and non-proliferation. The Holy See was one of the initial signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008 - and ratified it the same day. (The Vatican of course has no such weapons itself and becomes party to such agreements to serve as a moral example.) The Pope has advocated the elimination of land mines, and the Holy See is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Speaking at the UN in May, the Vatican envoy reaffirmed the Vatican’s support for nuclear non-proliferation and outlined five steps for nations to take to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat: adherence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, opening negotiations for a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, ending reliance on nuclear arms as part of military policy among nuclear states, giving the International Atomic Energy Association oversight over peaceful use of nuclear energy and expanding it role to include non-proliferation, and developing a new international agreement on nuclear fuel.
Inter-faith Understanding
-------------------------
¶11. (C/NF) The Vatican praised your Cairo speech, especially the sections on religious freedom and diversity, the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and Iran. The Vatican itself has worked for decades on improving understanding with the Islamic world, including through a pontifical institute for the study of Arabic and Islam. It stepped up inter-faith discussions after the September 11 attacks, and then again following the negative Muslim reaction to a 2006 speech by the Pope that some argued demeaned Islam. Key dialogues are with: the “group of 138” - moderate Muslim scholars and clerics - supported by Jordan; Iranian clerics; Al-Azar University in Cairo, which co-hosted your speech; and Saudi authorities. The Vatican’s primary objective for these talks is to promote religious freedom. The Holy See does not believe theological agreements with Islam are possible, but is convinced that better mutual knowledge will allay suspicions and facilitate peaceful co-existence, which they consider an even higher goal than simple “tolerance.” Another Vatican goal is supporting pragmatic inter-faith cooperation on social welfare programs. The Vatican believes governments should ensure religious freedom, but not be directly involved in interreligious dialogue (which by its nature should be between religious leaders).
Middle East Peace Process
-------------------------
¶12. (C/NF) Peace in the “Holy Land” is one of the Vatican’s top priorities, and was one of the central themes of the Pope’s May visit to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Despite criticism from some media and extremists, the trip was substantively successful. The Pope avoided any major mis-steps (always a difficult prospect for a Pontiff in visiting this area) and delivered the message that a two-state solution is the key to peace. He emphasized that the use of violence to achieve political objectives is morally unacceptable. He called for
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inter-faith dialogue and protection of Christian minorities. His messages largely mirror the U.S. approach to the region. This provides opportunities for further engagement with the U.S. in advancing peace initiatives there.
Iraq and Christians
-------------------
¶13. (C/NF) The Holy See publicly opposed U.S. intervention in Iraq. Once fighting began, however, the Vatican focus shifted to securing peace and justice, rebuilding the Iraqi economy, and protecting minority Christian communities. Holy See officials welcome your proposals for responsible withdrawal of U.S. troops, provided this does not create a security vacuum, particularly in Christian areas. The Vatican appreciates U.S. resettlement of the most vulnerable Iraqi victims of persecution -- including many Christians-- but seeks to avoid large-scale exodus of Christians from that country. (Regional bishops estimate as many as half of the region’s 300-400,000 Chaldean Christians have left, and believe they will not return.) The Vatican was deeply concerned last fall that quotas set for Iraq’s provincial elections system might reduce Christian representation in local governments, fueling further emigration. It took the unusual step of formally asking the USG to press the Iraqis to increase the quotas for Christians. Despite a boycott threat, Christians ultimately participated in the provincial elections. The future of the Christian communities in Iraq will remain high on the Vatican agenda before and after the U.S. military drawdown.
Africa
------
¶14. (C/NF) The Pope travelled to Africa in March. He grabbed headlines with an interview he gave en route saying that the use of condoms contributed to the spread of AIDS. The Vatican later clarified the Pope’s comments, saying that condoms are not always 100% effective and noting studies that show condom distribution increases promiscuity. Benedict XVI has called on world leaders to pay special attention to the needs of the Continent - where one in four people suffer from chronic hunger -- this year. In a letter to the German President, Pope Benedict wrote that the “support of the international community is needed...precisely because the current financial and economic crisis is particularly affecting Africa.” The Pontiff has pledged the Church’s continued assistance to the weakest sectors of Africa’s population. (The UN estimates that Catholic charities provide 17% of health care in sub-Saharan Africa; the Church also runs schools, homes for the aged, re-integration centers for child soldiers and other programs there.) Bishops from Africa will gather in Rome in October for a month to discuss needs on the continent.
Cuba
----
¶15. (C/NF) The Church is the only major institution in Cuba that is independent from the government. The Vatican hopes for a transition to democracy in Cuba, but is not at the forefront of that battle because it is more concerned about protecting its small space for operations in Cuba. The Vatican opposes the U.S. embargo, which it believes hurts poor Cubans disproportionately. It welcomed your decision to remove limits on family visitation and remittances. Vatican officials believe that exchanging the five Cuban spies imprisoned in the U.S. for political prisoners in Cuba is worth discussing, and have urged the U.S. to grant visas to the wives of the spies to allow them to visit.
Turkey EU Accession
-------------------
¶16. (C/NF) As Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope had expressed uneasiness about the notion Turkish accession to the EU. The Holy See’s position now is that as a non-EU member the Vatican has no role in promoting or vetoing Turkey’s membership. The Vatican might prefer to see Turkey develop a special relationship short of membership with the EU, but Vatican Secretary of State (Prime Minister-equivalent) Bertone has stated that Turkey should become a member if it meets all the EU
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criteria - including full protection of human rights and religious freedoms.
Iran
----
¶17. (C/NF) The Holy See is deeply concerned about the recent violence and ongoing human rights violations in Iran. It has been publicly silent to date on the current crisis, in part to preserve its ability to act as an intermediary if an international crisis emerges. (The Vatican helped secure the release of British sailors detained in Iranian waters in April 2007.) It is unclear how much clout the Vatican really has with Iran, however. NOYES
AN INVENTORY OF THE VATICAN'S INTERFAITH DIALOGUES
Viewing cable 09VATICAN134, AN INVENTORY OF THE VATICAN'S INTERFAITH DIALOGUES
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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2019
TAGS: PREL PHUM KIRF SOCI SCUL VT
SUBJECT: AN INVENTORY OF THE VATICAN'S INTERFAITH DIALOGUES
REF: A. 08 VATICAN 87
¶B. VATICAN 124
¶C. 08 USUN 1126
¶D. VATICAN 106
¶E. VATICAN 122
¶F. VATICAN 100
¶G. VATICAN 126
VATICAN 00000134 001.2 OF 003
CLASSIFIED BY: Julieta Valls Noyes, DCM, EXEC, State.
REASON: 1.4 (b)
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Vatican is a leader or partner in many
inter-religious dialogues, primarily with the "Abrahamic"
religions - Islam, Judaism, and of course, other Christians.
Vatican leaders are also beginning to reach out to Asian faiths.
This cable describes the Vatican's primary, organized
dialogues. Septels: A) analyze why the Vatican pursues
interfaith dialogue, and B) propose USG-Holy See collaboration
in support of such discussions. End Summary.
Dialogues with Muslim Communities and Nations
---------------------------------------------
¶2. (SBU) Formal, modern-day Vatican dialogue with the Muslim
world goes back for over a decade. It intensified following
September 11, 2001, and again after the controversy that erupted
over Pope Benedict XVI's September 2006 address in Regensberg.
Some of these dialogues have delivered concrete results; others
remain largely symbolic. Following are the formal,
institutionalized Vatican dialogues with Muslims:
-- Partnership with the Jordanian Royal Institute of Inter-Faith
Studies. Held its first colloquium on "Religions and Civil
Society" in Rome in 2009. Will meet every two years. The next
meeting will be in 2011 in Amman or Rome. (Note: This
institute is distinct from the Aal al-Bayt institute which is
part of the Catholic Muslim Forum). (See www.riifs.org.)
-- "A Common Word": The Catholic-Muslim Forum: First met in
Rome November 4-6, 2008. Muslim delegates - both Sunni and Shia
- selected by the Amman-based Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic
Thought. Final declaration called for religious freedom,
protection of minorities, respect for religious symbols, and
equal rights. Will meet every two years: 2010 Forum may meet in
Jordan or another Muslim-majority country (ref a). (See
www.acommonword.com.)
-- Saudi-sponsored dialogue: Initiated by Saudi King, through
the Mecca-based Muslim World League (a.k.a. the Rabita). King
of Spain hosted the first meeting in Madrid on July 18, 2008.
Second meeting held on margins of 2008 UNGA, attended by
then-President Bush and eighty-plus other senior officials.
Participants criticized terrorists who claimed to act in the
name of religion. Two additional meetings held in Vienna and
Geneva; latest resulting in agreement to create secretariat --
and possibly new center -- for interreligious dialogue in
Vienna, Austria (refs B and C). (See www.world-dialogue.org )
-- The Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions
First held in 2003. Meets in Astana, Kazakhstan every three
years. The next meeting will be in 2012. (See
www.religions-congress.org.)
-- Coordination Committee of the PCID and the World Islamic Call
Society (WICS) of Libya. The focus of this meeting is relations
between Muslims and Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, where the
WICS is active. First held in 2002. Meets every two years in
Tripoli or Rome. Next meeting in 2010.
-- The Joint Committee for Dialogue between the PCID and the
Permanent Committee of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, for
Dialogue between Monotheistic Religions. First held in 1998.
Meets at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo every year.
-- Dialogue with Center for Inter-Religious Dialogue of the
Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Iran. This
Vatican partnership with Iran's Islamic Guidance Ministry dates
back to 1995. The subject of a recent meeting was "Human
dignity with special reference to bioethics." Meets in Tehran
every two years. The next meeting is in 2010. (See
http://en.icro.ir .)
-- The Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee of the International
Forum for Dialogue. First held in 1995. Meets in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, every three years. Next meeting in 2012. (See
www.dialogueonline.org.)
VATICAN 00000134 002.2 OF 003
Other Avenues for Catholic-Muslim Encounters
--------------------------------------------
¶3. (SBU) The Holy See and the Arab League established diplomatic
relations in 2000. The League has a representative to the Holy
See based in Rome, and the Vatican's representative to the
League is the nuncio in Cairo. The Holy See and the League
signed a Memorandum of Understanding on April 23, 2009, to
strengthen joint projects to promote peace and dialogue,
especially on the political and cultural levels. The Memorandum
was signed by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Holy See's
Secretary of Relations with States, and Arab League Secretary
General Amr Moussa. Vatican officials note that the MOU has not
yet led to any concrete initiatives or dialogues.
¶4. (C) The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue
signed a "Declaration of Intent" with the Department for
Religious Affairs of the Turkish Prime Minister's Cabinet on
April 25, 2002. Its aim was to promote inter-religious
dialogue, in particular by facilitating collaboration between
academic institutions. Progress in discussions with the Turks
is not coming quickly. The Vatican is disappointed that the
former Church of Paul of Tarsus is now a Turkish government-run
museum. The Vatican also supports Orthodox demands to reopen
the Halki seminary in Turkey, have the GOT recognize the
Ecumenical Patriarch as an international religious leader, and
grant greater religious freedoms to Orthodox and other
Christians.
¶5. (SBU) Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the
Inter-Religious Dialogue Council, travelled to Indonesia in
November 2009. It was the first visit of the Vatican's top
dialogue official to Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority
country in the world -- 206 million out of a population of 240
million. (There are 7 million Catholics in the country.)
Vatican and Indonesian officials continue to discuss concrete
initiatives for follow-up to this visit.
The Other Monotheistic Faiths: Jews and other Christians
--------------------------------------------- -----------
¶6. (SBU) Unlike relations with Islam, Vatican relations with
Jews are characterized by substantial theological common ground
and historic roots. Discussions between the two religions are
ongoing and broad-based. They are often intersected by
politics, and sometimes hurt by missteps. The Vatican's
long-standing dialogue initiatives with the Jews prospered in
the years since the Vatican II Council removed obstacles to good
relations. They took a big hit in January 2009, however, when
the Vatican restored communion to a schismatic Catholic group
that included a Holocaust-denying bishop. After considerable
effort by the Vatican and the Pope himself, relations have been
largely mended and were solidified with the Pope's visit to the
Holy Land in May 2009. Nevertheless, the proposed conferral of
sainthood on WWII-era Pope Pius XII and access by historians to
the archives of his pontificate are recurring irritants in the
relationship (ref D).
¶7. (SBU) Meanwhile, Vatican officials speak constantly with
followers of other Christian faiths in ecumenical dialogue
intended to overcome divisions between Christians. Indeed, the
Vatican has a separate Pontifical Council for Christian Unity
(which for historical reasons also covers dialogue with Jews).
These discussions have their ups and downs. While the Vatican
move in November 2009 to welcome disaffected Anglicans to the
Catholic Church dealt a blow to ecumenical understanding (ref
E), the rift is healing in part because few Anglicans will
probably take advantage of the Vatican offer. Meanwhile,
relations with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow -- who
commands the allegiance of a large number of Orthodox and is
thus arguably more influential than Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew -- have improved. (ref F). This has allowed Moscow
and the Vatican to upgrade their "special character" to "full
diplomatic" relations (ref G).
¶8. (SBU) Ultimately, the monotheistic nature and shared historic
roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- all "people of the
book" - make dialogue between these three religions easier for
the Vatican in some ways than discussions with other religions.
An important interfaith meeting including senior leaders of the
world's major monotheistic religions, Christians (Catholic and
VATICAN 00000134 003.2 OF 003
Orthodox), Jews and Muslims, took place in Seville, Spain,
December 6-8, 2009. The King of Spain's "Three Cultures, Three
Faiths" Foundation sponsored the event. (VATICAN 124).
Outreach to Asian Faiths
------------------------
¶9. (C) Despite the difficulty for the Vatican of finding common
ground with polytheistic religions, Holy See officials are
starting to do just that in an effort to support peace,
religious freedom, human rights, and local solutions to local
problems (see septel). Cardinal Tauran travelled to India in
June 2009 for initial dialogue with Hindus. Tauran's goal was
to go beyond the positive assurances that had characterized
previous meetings with Hindu leaders. Specifically, he sought
to bridge the gap between his Indian interlocutors' stated
goodwill and the continuing hostility toward Christians in parts
of India like Orissa, especially by some Hindu nationalists.
The Vatican also raised concerns about Indian anti-conversion
laws -- although they have not been enforced. Cardinal Tauran
also traveled to Japan in August 2009, to initiate discussions
with Buddhists and other Asian faiths.
¶10. (SBU) Comment: Tauran acknowledges quietly that the Vatican
has not paid sufficient attention to relations with Asian
religions. He is not an expert on polytheistic religions and is
unlikely to find -- or even seek -- common theological ground
with their precepts. Instead, as he and his Council increase
their outreach to these communities, they will challenge their
interlocutors to remove obstacles to the enjoyment of religious
freedom for all. End comment.
Comment
-------
¶11. (C) The number and scope of the Vatican's inter-religious
dialogues is unparalleled by that of any other church or
organization in the world. The dialogues are already effective
in preventing or smoothing over misunderstandings and tensions.
The big question is how to translate into concrete actions the
high moral principles that the world's major religions bring to
the dialogue table. Septel includes proposals for USG
engagement with the Vatican in support of interreligious
understanding and action.
DIAZ
The WikiLeaks and Religion
Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks have gotten a lot of attention, and I’ve been following a bit of the stir over the sexual assault allegations against him. Just a few of the stories I’ve read about the cables have focused on religion, but I thought they were interesting. One of them mentioned the Vatican’s communication flaws, as reported by the Religion News Service:
The cable was written amid heated controversy over Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to readmit an ultra-traditionalist bishop who turned out to be a public Holocaust denier. Benedict himself has called the move a mistake and a failure in “public relations.”The Vatican lacks any “comprehensive communication strategy,” wrote Julieta Valls Noyes, the No. 2 official at the U.S. embassy to the Holy See in a February 2009 cable back to Washington.Noyes characterized the Vatican’s approach to public relations as a “hit-or-miss proposition,” and said “decision making” is divorced from “public spin.” The result, she wrote, is that the “church’s message is often unclear.”Events over the intervening two years show that not much has changed.The story goes on to point to news stories underscoring the Vatican’s response to excerpted comments about condom usage to prevent HIV/AIDS from Pope Benedict XVI’s “Light of the World” - a book-length interview with Peter Seewald that I just finished. It’s worth noting that the Vatican has been clarifying the Pope’s comments for almost a month it seems, but maybe this week’s clarification will be the last one for awhile.
The other significant religious cable appeared last week. Last Friday, the London Guardian published a piece about comments from the Dalai Lama on climate change:
The Dalai Lama, according to the latest release of WikiLeaks cables, told US diplomats that, for Tibet, climate change is a more urgent issue than a political settlement. This will certainly dismay some of the more radical elements of the region’s independence movement. Many of the younger Tibetans in exile are already frustrated with their spiritual leader’s moderate and non-violent approach. For them, independence will always trump the environment.Beyond these, I wonder if there have been other WikiLeaks cables that have also had long-reaching religious implications that I missed? There is a story to be told, I think, about the faith of Assange, if he has one, and where he stands on the moral implications of his actions. To many, he seems like a hero and is being pursued like a martyr. I’d like to know more about what shaped him. There are glimpses of that in a New Yorker profile from June, but just glimpses — the profile has lots of other good details about Assange developing as a hacker from a young age, but the only other mention of his history with any kind of faith (besides the passage below) has to do with his mother’s ex-boyfriend who was part of a cult:
He had come to understand the defining human struggle not as left versus right, or faith versus reason, but as individual versus institution. As a student of Kafka, Koestler, and Solzhenitsyn, he believed that truth, creativity, love, and compassion are corrupted by institutional hierarchies, and by “patronage networks”—one of his favorite expressions—that contort the human spirit. He sketched out a manifesto of sorts, titled “Conspiracy as Governance,” which sought to apply graph theory to politics. Assange wrote that illegitimate governance was by definition conspiratorial—the product of functionaries in “collaborative secrecy, working to the detriment of a population.” He argued that, when a regime’s lines of internal communication are disrupted, the information flow among conspirators must dwindle, and that, as the flow approaches zero, the conspiracy dissolves. Leaks were an instrument of information warfare.
US pushed pope to welcome Islam: News24: World: News
Madrid - The United States initially saw Pope Benedict XVI as a "eurocentric" pontiff who was "unlikely to cut a prominent figure on the world stage", according to WikiLeaks documents published on Thursday.
The confidential US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblower website were quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais.
German-born Benedict XVI would face a "steep learning curve" on international issues, US diplomats wrote after the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005.
Some of the cables focus on a 2006 academic lecture given by the pope, who quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor saying that the Muslim prophet Mohammed had brought "only evil and inhuman things". The quote sparked furious criticism in the Muslim world.
"It taxes the imagination" to suppose that such a reference by the pope "would pass unnoticed", a US diplomat wrote.
Didn't foresee consequences of statement
According to his assessment, the pope made the reference on purpose, but without foreseeing the consequences, which were followed by apologies by the Vatican.
The pope's "approach toward Islam and toward inter-religious dialogue is cooler than that of his predecessor" John Paul II, the diplomat observed.
The controversy was followed by the pope's trip to Turkey, during which he toned down the uneasiness he had expressed about Turkey's eventual European Union membership while he was still a cardinal.
The Vatican's official stance now is that it is not opposed to the membership as long as Turkey meets EU conditions including religious freedom for its Christians.
The Vatican agreed with Washington that the possibility of Turkey - a US ally - joining the EU had the potential to promote greater rights for religious minorities in the country, US diplomats wrote.
Unofficially, however, top Vatican officials told diplomats they were sceptical about Turkey's commitment to religious freedom.
"The Holy See does not believe theological agreements with Islam are possible, but is convinced that better mutual knowledge will allay suspicions and facilitate peaceful co-existence," US diplomats wrote in 2009.
- SAPA
US government interested in Pius XII’s wartime role, WikiLeaks cables show
Vatican City, Dec 23, 2010 / 01:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The controversy over Pius XII’s role in protecting Jews from the Nazis is not merely an academic dispute but involves U.S. State Department interests, new WikiLeaks documents show.
The British newspaper The Guardian released four U.S. government cables related to research into the papacy of Pope Pius XII.
The first cable from the U.S. Vatican Embassy, dated Aug. 13, 2001, recounts a meeting with Fr. Peter Gumpel, S.J., who is involved in opening the Vatican archives. The document alluded to a previous cable which explained U.S. government interests in promoting a “positive productive dialogue” quickly because of the passing of the Holocaust generation.
Fr. Gumpel explained to the U.S. officials the procedures for accessing the Vatican archives and also reported inadequate staffing for his task. According to the cable, he recounted the perceived inadequacies of the Jewish-Vatican commission studying Pius XII’s role in the Second World War, such as most members’ inability to read the relevant documents in the original Italian.
The priest told the U.S. officials that Pope John Paul II was aware of the situation regarding the research.
He also objected to media descriptions of him as the “German Jesuit.” He recounted that his family had been victims of the Nazis and he himself fled Nazi Germany as a refugee. He also noted that at one point a reporter had planned to print an assertion that he was himself a Nazi, which Fr. Gumpel said was libelous.
Another confidential cable from the Vatican Embassy, dated Dec. 31, 2001, discussed the Jewish-Vatican commission in its report on a conversation between U.S. Ambassador Jim Nicholson and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
Nicholson said the commission had dissolved “amid some acrimony,” according to the cable, and there was interest in the U.S. about whether it would be re-formed. The cardinal attributed the commission’s failure to personality problems and its lack of a clear mandate, insisting this was not a failure of Catholic-Jewish dialogue.
The cardinal called Fr. Gumpel the Vatican’s best-informed living expert on Pius XII’s papacy and he expressed hope that a commission could be re-formed with highly qualified academics not directly associated with either the Catholic Church or with Jewish agencies.
Cardinal Kasper “averred” that claims Pius XII was pro-Nazi were “without foundation” and he thought the archives would bear this out, the U.S. cable reported. The cardinal cited Israeli leader Golda Meir’s post-war praise for the Pope and he claimed that the Jewish community “became obsessed” with Pius XII’s wartime actions only after revisionist historians began publishing in the 1960s.
In the cable’s words, the cardinal thought the Pope communicated opposition to Nazism “subtly but clearly.”
"The convents all around here were full of Jews, at great risk, even though the SS was in this very building," commented Cardinal Kasper, who was speaking in the Apostolic Palace.
The cable’s analysis said that the Vatican remains “highly sensitive” to criticism of Pius XII and characterized the Vatican archive as “a hard nut to crack.” It also noted the Vatican’s insistence that its twelve-volume series culled from the Pius XII archive was a reasonable start.
A Feb. 22, 2002 cable followed up on the issue, noting the announcement of the archives’ partial opening. The cable’s author saw the move as an attempt by Pope John Paul II to “silence accusations of anti-Semitism leveled against his predecessor Pius XII” and also as a possible sign of renewed Vatican interest in beatifying the pontiff.
Pope John Paul II’s decision to sidestep standard release procedures shows that “whatever the Pope wants, does in fact happen,” concluded the cable, which was apparently signed by Nicholson.
The fourth cable dates from Oct. 16, 2009 and concerns the Holy See’s withdrawal from an agreement to become an international observer on the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. The Vatican Embassy cable speculated that the Vatican’s “relatively inexperienced” new deputy foreign minister Mgsr. Ettore Balestrero made the decision, but it also wondered whether the move also signaled concerns about the task force’s pressure to release records related to Pius XII’s pontificate.
Task force members, including Austrian Ambassador Ferdinand Trauttsmandorff, U.S. Professor Steve
Katz of the Elie Wiesel Center at Boston University, and Israeli academic advisor Dina Porat, expressed “considerable disappointment” about the setback. Trauttsmandorff insisted that the task force sought a relationship with the Vatican not only to access the archives but also to work jointly with Catholic leaders in many countries on anti-racism and Holocaust remembrance education.The cables have their source in the WikiLeaks website, which acquired more than 250,000 of the documents. Its media partners, which include The Guardian and The New York Times, have helped shape the selection and the timing of the released cables and have also redacted information believed to be sensitive.
The insights into U.S. officials’ views of the investigation of Pius XII’s papacy comes just before the publication of French scholar Joël-Benoît d'Onorio’s new analysis criticizing a “myth of the archives.”
In an article excerpted in the Dec. 23 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, d’Onorio argued that the archives will never produce proof of “what doesn’t exist … proof of the voluntary weakness of Pius XII.”
D’Onorio, who is president of the federation of Catholic jurists of France, wrote a Dec. 22 response in the French newspaper La Croix to Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions.
Prasquier contended there is “no certain historic proof” that Pope Pius XII saved numerous lives during World War II. He rebuked the wartime pontiff’s alleged “silences” and “fear of speaking out.”
To this, d’Onorio replied that there are documents that already attest to Pius XII’s acts, such as 1943 records from Rome’s Augustinianum which show he ordered a monastery to open its doors to thousands. When Nazi occupiers asked Jews for 50 kilograms of gold to ransom 300 Jewish hostages, the Pope quickly ordered 15 kilograms to supply what the Jews lacked.
D’Onorio said there is “much more evidence” in Pius XII’s favor. “The valid studies are numerous and come from different sources, but they are deliberately ignored to sustain a black legend,” he charged.
The Pope’s alleged fear of speaking out in fact hid “a grand charity in action.”