| Cardinal predicts Novak’s effort to sell
Vatican on Iraq war will fail
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Perugia, Italy
A top Vatican official has predicted that Michael Novak, an
American Catholic intellectual asked by the U.S. government to try to persuade
Rome of the morality of a possible “preventive war” in Iraq, will
fail.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, in a Jan. 24 comment to NCR, said
with respect to a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq, “I do not see how the
requirements for a just war can be met at this time.”
Asked if he thought Novak’s mission to persuade the Vatican
could succeed, Kasper responded: “I don’t think so.”
“I am of the opinion of the pope himself, and of the
Secretariat of State, of the Roman curia,” Kasper said. “I do not
think all the methods of peaceful negotiations, of diplomatic relations, have
been exhausted.”
Kasper, a German who serves as president of the Pontifical Council
for Promoting Christian Unity, was in the central Italian city of Perugia for a
lecture on Pope Leo XIII and ecumenism on the 100th anniversary of that
pope’s death. Following the program, NCR asked for his perspective
on the war.
“A war would touch the poorest of the poor, not Saddam
Hussein,” Kasper said. “Women and children and sick people would have
to suffer, and we should consider the destiny of such people.”
U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See James Nicholson announced in
mid-January that he would bring Novak to Rome, after a series of critical
comments by the pope and a host of Vatican officials on the idea of war with
Iraq.
Curial officials have complained about U.S.
“unilateralism” and warned that an American strike in the Middle East
would arouse anger across the Islamic world. Most recently, Vatican media
outlets have suggested that oil interests and the desire of American TV
networks for ratings are behind the buildup to war.
In his comments to NCR, Kasper echoed concern about Muslim
reaction.
“Very often the Muslims make an identification, which is
wrong but they do it, between Christianity and the West,” Kasper said.
“I think this war could become a very heavy problem and could destabilize
the entire region of the Middle East.”
Kasper’s comments are especially in-dicative of the
Vatican’s strong opposition to a war in Iraq, since Kasper supported U.S.
strikes in Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11.
“This [the Taliban] is a very terrible government that
doesn’t respect the human rights of its own people,” Kasper said in
response to a question from NCR at that time. “When a government
shelters terrorists, the civilized world has a right to come to a conflict with
this government. There is a network and it must be destroyed, but without
shedding innocent blood as much as possible.”
On the subject of Iraq, however, Kasper struck a different tone
Jan. 24.
“I don’t think I have all the information about Iraq, it
is impossible [that I would], but as much as I have, I am not in favor of this
war. … I think we should use other means to solve these questions. I do
not defend Saddam Hussein, nobody would. But there are also other means to
resolve the questions of peace and justice in the world,” he said.
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail
address is jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, February 7,
2003
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