VATICAN CITY (CNS): As the Church entered Lent with special prayers and fasting for peace, Pope John Paul II sent an envoy to convince President George W. Bush that the Iraqi crisis should be resolved without war.
By all accounts, however, Cardinal Pio Laghi’s meeting with President Bush on March 5 did not change anyone’s mind.
The United States threatened anew to use military force to disarm Iraq, with or without UN consent. The Vatican continued to warn that a unilateral US military strike would be immoral and would severely damage the peacekeeping role of the United Nations.
Cardinal Laghi, a former Vatican ambassador to the United States, met with President Bush for 40 minutes at the White House and delivered a personal message from the Pope, spelling out the Vatican’s arguments against war. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and US ambassador to the Vatican, Jim Nicholson, also attended the meeting.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Cardinal Laghi said a war without UN approval would be “immoral … illegal, unjust”, and that any decision on the use of military force “can only be taken within the framework of the United Nations”.
The Italian cardinal, a long-time friend of Bush’s father, said the atmosphere of the meeting was good and the President had listened. But he said he did not know if his “message was received with the same intention that it was given”.
