t eanc 0 VOL. 32, NO.6.
Friday, February 5, 1988
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John Paul's international influence Shifts stand VATICAN CITY (NC) - In a January speech to diplomats, Pope John Paul II stepped into line with the views of previous popes by moving away from his position that nuclear deterrence can be morally acceptable. His atomic~age predecessors stressed the dangers of deterrence to world peace, urged its quick replacement as a political strategy, and said nothing about the morality of deterrence. Pope John Paul is the only pope in the post-World War II Atomic Age to have stated publicly that a nuclear deterrence policy can be moral. He did so in a 1982 message to the United Nations. "I n current conditions 'deterrence' based on balance, certainly not as an end in itself but as a step toward a progressive disarmament, may still be judged morally acceptable," tht: pope said in that speech. But in his 1988 comments to the diplomats, the pope asked that nuclear deterrence be replaced by a mutual security based on an "intertwining of vital interests and relations" because deterrence "cannot constitute, in a lasting way, a viable base for security and peace." Vatican officials say Pope John Paul's new view is tied to last December's U.S.-Soviet agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. It was the first time the superpowers a'greed to remove nuclear weapons already in place and the
pope, in his speech to the diplomats, enc.ouraged this as an important first step toward meaningful disarmament. His implication was that as disarmament moves forward, the need for deterrence diminishes. No pope has morally condemned nuclear deterrence. But the emphasis has been on its negative aspects as a basis for stable peace. At best, Pope Paul VI acknowledged its existence as a political strategy which others credit with preventing the outbreak of nuclear war. This also was the position of the Second Vatican Council in its Pastoral Constitution On the Church in the Modern World, "Gaudium et Spes." "Since the defensive strength of any nation is thought to depend on its capacity for immediate retaliation, the stockpiling of arms which grows from year to year serves, in a way hitherto unthought of, as a deterrent to potential attackers. Many people look upon this as the most efficient way known at the present time for maintaining some sort of peace among nations," said the council. It then added, "Whatever one may think of this form of deterrent, people are convinced that the arms race, Which quite a few countries have entered, is no infallible way of maintainiqg real peace and that the resulting so-called balance Turn to Page Six
Meets with Latin leaders VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope" John Paul II met privately with several key players in the Central American peace process as Nicaraguan talks got under way in Costa Rica. Within three days the pope conducted separate meetings with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega; Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo of Managua, Nicaragua, who has mediated his country's talks; and Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas, who has served as a mediator for peace talks in his country. He also met with Honduran Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras. In San Jose, Costa Rica, Jan. 29, Nicaraguan government and rebel representatives ended a twoday meeting at a Catholic seminary and agreed to meet again Feb. 10-12 in Guatemala. Auxiliary Bishop Bosco Vivas Robelo of Managua said he found "good will on both sides to seek a cease-fire in Nicaragua" in the near future. "There was what we would call a verbal cease-fire," he said. At the Vatican, an official who declined to be identified said Pope John Paul was interested in deepening the process of negotiation and reconciliation in Central America. Although Cardinal Obando Bravo declined to give details of his Jan. 27 meeting with the pope, Ortega told reporters Jan. 29 that
the pope supports the Central American peace plan and sovereignty for the people of the region. Ortega. who described his conversation with the pope as "very frank" and "very constructive," added that the pope reinforced efforts that the Central American peace plan become a reality. It was the first meeting between Ortega and Pope John Paul since a 1983 visit to Nicaragua was
marred by demonstrations during a papal Mass. The half-hour private meeting in the papal library was conducted in Spanish, without aides or translators. Although the pope received Ortega privately, thus eschewing the elaborate protocol and exchange of speeches of a formal visit by a head of s~ate, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls Turn to Page Six
S ees King Hussein VATICAN CITY (NC) - Pope John Paul II met with King Hussein of Jordan Feb. I to discuss Middle East issues, following weeks of violent clashes between Israeli occupation troops and Palestinians. After the half-hour meeting, a Vatican spokesman said the Vatican viewed the Palestinian issue as "a question of international justice." Press spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valis said the "recent dramatic devlopments" in the occupied territories illustrated the "urgent need" to find a fair solution to the Palestinian problem. Much of the occupied territory belonged to Jordan before the 1967 Middle East war. He also underlined Vatican dissatisfaction with the current status of Jerusalem, which Israel declared its capital in 1980 after annexing the Arab eastern part of the city.
King Hussein, in Rome to promote an international peace conference on the Middle East, met with the pope privately in the papal library. The pope welco"med him warmly and said in remarks during a photo session: "My best wishes to all the Jordanian people." The king afterward met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli. Greeting the king, Cardinal Casaroli said he appreciated Jordan's peace efforts and added that it "is indispensable to unite the efforts of everyone of good will. The situation is very dangerous." King Hussein in reply called it "a difficult moment for all of us." Navarro-Valls' statement refer"red to a number of recent papal Turn to Page Six
SRO for 'Grand Inquisitor' NEW YORK (NC) - Some people might not expect that an abstruse lecture delivered in Germanic academic style by a Vatican official could become the "hot ticket" event of the evening in midtown Manhattan. But on Jan. 27 it did. A record attendance at the annual Erasmus Lecture - along with demonstrators outside and a few hecklers inside - were part of the New York greeting for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His appearance was extraordinary in itself. His address was sponsored by the Rockford Institute's Center on Religion and Society, an independent, ecumenical agency led by a Lutheran minister, the Rev. Richard J. Neuhaus. Mr. Ncuhaus said he initiated discussions leading to the cardinal's appearance when he went to Rome for the 1985 world Synod of Bishops.
The lecture, in St. Peter's Lutheran Church, was followed by a two-day private conference at which the cardinal, who has been at the center of church controversies over theological dissent, homosexual activity and Jewish relations, discussed issues as a fellow scholar with 20 or so Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox scholars. The evening become even more of a celebrity event with the arrival of Judge Robert Bork, whose nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate last year. Bork said he was there primarily because of the interest of his wife, Mary Ellen, a former nun. Asked if he agreed with the lecture on biblical interpretation, he replied, "I'm going to have to read it to fully understand it." New York's Cardinal John J. O'Connor, with whom Cardinal Ratzinger was staying, noted in introducing him that it was the Inquisition that developed into the
Holy Office that became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal O'Connor recalled that in "The Brothers Karamazov" the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky had given such a "chilling" and "terrifying" account of the Grand Inquisitor that more than 50,000 commentaries had been written on the passage. "In essence, you are looking at the Grand Inquisitor," he saidjokingly of Cardinal Ratzinger. And it may be, Cardinal O'Connor continued more seriously, that more than 50,000 commentaries will someday have been written about Cardinal Ratzinger without having "exhausted" the subject. Cardinal Ratzinger preceded the reading of his lecture by pointing out that Dostoyevsky had presented a Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. "The Roman Inquisition was never so famous," Turn to Page 12
NC photo
Cardinal Ratzinger
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