Papal envoy urges Bush to avoid war

Christian Century, March 22, 2003

President Bush received a Vatican diplomat on Ash Wednesday who delivered a personal appeal from Pope John Paul II that the U.S. not go to war with Iraq. Cardinal Pio Laghi, an ex-Vatican ambassador to the U.S. and a close friend of the president's father, met for 40 minutes with the president at the White House.

The president was "interested" in the pope's views, he said. Laghi, 80, told reporters March 5 he was "very frank and clear in explaining" the Holy See's opposition to war and that the world is "not at the end yet" in pursuing a peaceful resolution. He warned that a U.S.-led war would open "a new gulf between Islam and Christianity."

Washington and the Vatican in recent weeks have each tried to persuade the other of the moral merits or pitfalls of an Iraq war. Bush has rebuffed mainline church leaders who almost unanimously oppose a preemptive strike to dislodge Saddam Hussein. United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, who has criticized Bush in television ads, told ABC News that "it saddens me that even before the papal envoy arrived, the message was clear."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer denied that Bush was isolating himself from religious critics. "If there are those who differ with the president on this, the president respects their opinion and respects their ideas and respects their thoughts. He listens carefully."

As Bush saw Laghi, Bob Edgar, head of the National Council of Churches, met in Moscow with a top cleric from the 80-million-member Russian Orthodox Church.

"We are here to communicate that in the United States there is not unanimous support for a war," said Edgar before meeting with Metropolitan Kirill, the second most influential figure in Russia's dominant faith. Russian Orthodox leaders, generally opposed to war in Iraq, have been far less vocal than Western churches.

Meanwhile, also on Ash Wednesday, 19 protesters were arrested in downtown Los Angeles for blocking an intersection. The group included two Episcopal priests wearing clerical garb--Ed Bacon and George Regas, the current and previous rectors, respectively, of All Saints Church in Pasadena--who were part of anti-war demonstrations coordinated nationwide by interfaith and student groups.

In Chicago, William Persell, the Episcopal bishop for that diocese, decried U.S. belligerency and military spending in a homily that marked the start of the 40 days of repentance leading to Easter. "We may not be able to stop a war on Iraq," Persell said. "But we also cannot walk away, turn our attentions, try to ignore what is happening in our name. Certainly we cannot let our religious observances of Lent distract us from the impending war. By the grace of our baptism, we have been called and equipped to work for peace, justice, integrity, and truth," said the bishop, recalling the trumpet call in Joel 2:1-2.