Church in the World

Pope calls for ceasefire in Libya

Robert Mickens - 2 April 2011

Pope Benedict XVI has made an “aggrieved appeal” for a suspension of fighting in Libya, saying it is necessary to search for a diplomatic, rather than a military solution to the uprising in the North African country.

“In the face of the ever more dramatic news that is coming from Libya, my trepidation for the safety of the civilian population grows as does my apprehension for the development of the situation, which is now marked by the use of weapons,” the Pope told a crowd of pilgrims that gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday for his noonday Angelus.

The Pope will have received information from the Church in Libya before expressing his concerns, which preceded by two days a warning expressed to the US Senate by Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, that American intelligence had picked up “flickers” of terrorist activity among Libyan rebel groups.  The majority of the Libyan opposition appeared to be “responsible men and women”,  Admiral James Stavridis said, but “we have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaeda, Hizbollah”.

The Pope instructed his nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, to convey his concerns to the leaders of some 40 nations who met in London on Tuesday to discuss the Libya crisis. At the conference, US, Qatari and British representatives said they were considering arming rebel groups, and the more than 40 ministers from around the world agreed to establish formal links with opposition groups in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. On Sunday Pope Benedict called on “international organisations and political and military leaders” to back the immediate launching of dialogue and a suspension of the use of weapons.

Church leaders in the region and abroad endorsed the Pope’s urgent plea, which clarified remarks from a week ago when he appeared to give tacit approval to the UN-authorised air strikes aimed at protecting civilians from attacks by Colonel Gaddafi.

“The Holy Father’s [new] appeal was wonderful news and gives us great comfort,” said the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, Bishop Giovanni Martinelli OFM. He told the Vatican-based Fides News Agency on Sunday that his office was translating the papal appeal into Arabic and would send it “as a voice message” to the Libyan Foreign Ministry.

The North African conference of Catholic bishops (Cerna) – which includes prelates from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya – was among the first group of church leaders to endorse the appeal for a negotiated resolution to the Libyan conflict. “Whether we like it or not, the war in the Near East, and now in the Maghreb, will always be interpreted as a ‘crusade’,” Cerna’s president, Moroccan Archbishop Vincent Landel, told Fides.

The head of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said on Monday there should be a “via Africana”, or African solution, to Libya’s conflict. In a major policy address to the CEI’s permanent council in Rome, he said the “hasty international intervention” in Libya had “raised questions and tensions”.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) initially said the UN-backed intervention “appears to meet” the just-cause criterion of Catholic teaching on just war. But the chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace, Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, also raised concerns about ultimate coalition aims. “In Catholic teaching the use of force must always be a last resort that serves a just cause,” he wrote in a 24 March letter to the US National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon. “Since the protection of civilians is paramount, a key question is: will the coalition actions stay focused on this limited goal and mission?”