Church in the World

Do not be resigned to war, urges Pope

Pope John Paul II has urged the world not to resign itself to war in Iraq, saying a conflict can still be averted. The Pope, who was expected to meet the Iraqi foreign minister yesterday, said the current moment was marked by ?tensions and winds of war? and that humanity was being tempted by ?hate and violence?. For this reason, he went on, ?it has become ever more urgent to announce the ?Gospel of peace? to a humanity greatly tested by hatred and violence?.

His remarks were made last Saturday to members of a Rome-based lay group which mediates in conflicts worldwide. The address was part of his birthday greetings to the Community of Sant?Egidio, which was celebrating the thirty-fifth anniversary of its foundation in 1968.

?Efforts must be multiplied?, the Pope went on. ?One cannot stand still before terrorist attacks, or faced with the threats that appear on the horizon. One must not resign oneself, almost as if the war were inevitable.?

On Monday Pope John Paul sent one of his senior troubleshooters to Baghdad. The mission entrusted to the former president of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, was ?to help the Iraqi authorities make a serious reflection on the duty of effective international cooperation, based on justice and international law, in order to ensure the supreme gift of peace to its people?, a Vatican statement said. Cardinal Etchegaray, who is a Basque Frenchman, helped negotiate the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem at Christmas 2001. In 1998 he met Saddam Hussein as part of an attempt to negotiate a visit to Iraq by the Pope. This time, he took a personal letter from the Pope to the Iraqi dictator.

Cardinal Etchegaray said a war with Iraq would be ?a catastrophe in every respect? with ?grave consequences for the Iraqi population?. A war would also aggravate relations between the West and Muslim countries, he told the Italian daily La Repubblica. The visit was welcomed by the Latin-rite Archbishop of Baghdad, Jean Benjamin Sleiman. He said that the cardinal would be coming at a moment of ?great anguish? for Iraqis. ?Many people are trying to move out?, he told Vatican Radio. ?They?re already fleeing from the war.?

Later this week, Pope John Paul told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter?s Square in Rome that only ?an act from on high? could prevent conflict. But he said he refused to give in to the threat of war. ?One cannot be idle in the face of the threats now on the horizon?, he said, repeating the phrase, ?War is not inevitable?.

?The Pope has a divinely inspired mission to save the world from war?, one Vatican official declared. ?He looks better than he has done for years ? you can see it in his body language.?

The Pope was expected to meet the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, yesterday. Next week he will hold talks with the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

Germany and the Vatican have ?a common position on Iraq?, according to the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, who met the Pope on 7 February. Both Germany and the Vatican believed it would be ?very difficult to calculate the risks of war?, Fischer said, adding that they also shared ?a profound unease about the humanitarian consequences, the consequences for regional stability and the long-term consequences in the whole region?.

Vatican officials and Fischer later issued a joint appeal for a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis, calling for the enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 without the use of force, and urging Iraq to actively comply with the weapons inspectors.

Germany is one of 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council, and currently holds the presidency of the council, which rotates monthly among the 15 member states in alphabetical order.