Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05VATICAN479
2005-05-23 15:20:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Vatican
Cable title:
BENEDICT XVI: LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW PONTIFICATE - PART
how-toThis record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS VATICAN 000479
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
DEPT. FOR EUR/WE (LEVIN); EUR/PPD; INR
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR VT
SUBJECT: BENEDICT XVI: LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW PONTIFICATE - PART
TWO
REF: A) VATICAN 0467; B) VATICAN 0475; C) VATICAN 0477
UNCLAS VATICAN 000479
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
DEPT. FOR EUR/WE (LEVIN); EUR/PPD; INR
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR VT
SUBJECT: BENEDICT XVI: LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW PONTIFICATE - PART
TWO
REF: A) VATICAN 0467; B) VATICAN 0475; C) VATICAN 0477
1. (U) This cable is the second of a series previewing the
pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. The first part (ref b)
examined the reasons for the election of Pope Benedict and
initial signals on directions for his papacy. This second cable
examines the approach he is likely to take on major issues. A
third cable will address the way that Benedict is likely to
govern the Church and the dynamics of his management of the
Curia.
--------------
Summary
--------------
2. (SBU) The pontificate of Benedict XVI is not likely to bring
about dramatic changes on issues facing the Catholic Church
internally or externally. As one of John Paul II's closest
collaborators, and one who perhaps more than any other member of
the Curia helped shape John Paul II's pontificate, it would be
unthinkable, as one of Pope Benedict's closest collaborators
told us last week, that Pope Benedict would shift the Holy See's
main doctrinal lines on core moral issues such as abortion,
euthanasia, artificial contraception, cloning, and
homosexuality. Despite his strong defense of Catholic doctrine
in a major 1999 document, he has already demonstrated a desire
to continue John Paul II's efforts to promote inter-religious
dialogue, and may be able to make more progress on
Orthodox-Catholic dialogue than his Slavic predecessor. Pope
Benedict has also indicted that he will press to continue
expanding the Holy See's diplomatic relations to encompass
countries where Catholic populations have faced religions
restrictions and Muslim countries where Catholic populations are
small or forced underground. On issues of war and peace,
Benedict XVI, whose experience of World War II remains vivid,
will continue John Paul II's efforts to promote peace. At the
same time, recognizing the need to confront evil, he will be
open to the idea that war may be necessary as a last resort. As
a theologian who has devoted his life to theological debates,
the new pope's views on international issues will likely take
shape over time through his meetings with heads of state and
government and in his contact with this Curial team -- which
remains unchanged to date from that of John Paul II. He is said
to like the United States, had more Americans on his staff than
most other Curial heads, and sent an important signal with his
first appointment, calling an American to head the Holy See's
most important dicastery. End Summary.
--------------
From Prefect to Pope
--------------
3. (SBU) While many observers are seeking to draw conclusions
about the contours of Benedict XVI's pontificate based on his 21
years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith (CDF),many Vatican officials have cautioned that there is
a vast difference between being Prefect of CDF and being Pope.
Ratzinger is no longer the Church's top official for
safeguarding Catholic theological orthodoxy, and it will no
longer fall to him personally to set wayward theologians or
other Catholics back on the straight and narrow path. He has
already softened his image as doctrinal enforcer, and begun his
effort to convince the world of what describes as ""the common
values and common truths on the essentials of human life -- how
to live and how to respond to the great challenges of our time.""
Specifically, Benedict XVI has called for ""moral
responsibility, love and justice"" to be introduced into the
world of work, trade and politics.
4. (SBU) While Benedict will no longer have to ""play the heavy""
on doctrine, this does not translate into greater freedom
generally for the new pontiff. On the contrary, he will no
longer be as free to speak and act as he was prior to his
election as the 264th successor of Peter. As a global leader in
a global age, Pope Benedict XVI's every word will be analyzed
and taken as the authoritative view of the Catholic Church.
Early indications are that Benedict is well aware of these
distinctions, and that he has the potential to frame with
clarity some of the leading international challenges of the
twenty-first century. In the first month of his pontificate, he
has signaled his desire to seek consensus, build bridges, listen
to differing opinions, and speak the language of reconciliation
and rapprochement. Most Church observers have been enthusiastic
upon seeing the human side of Benedict few witnessed before his
election.
--------------
Staying the Course on ""Moral Issues""
--------------
5. (SBU) The warmer public image of Pope Benedict XVI that has
developed (and which his close associates assure us is much
closer to reality than the traditional media portrayal of
Cardinal Ratzinger) does not mean he has plans for a makeover of
the Catholic Church's uncompromising stands on the sexual,
bioethical, and family issues facing Catholics and the world
community. Associates of the new pope have assured us there
will be no change in the Catholic Church's position on abortion,
euthanasia, artificial contraception, cloning, divorce and
homosexuality. Benedict's approach to bioethical and
biotechnological issues is likely to be founded on the core
question: are new scientific procedures and possibilities
conducive to real human advancement or will they lead to human
destruction? The new pope will reach out to women, but he will
not ordain them as priests. Benedict XVI will continue to
support the Catholic Church's considerable efforts to care for
persons with HIV/AIDS, its ban on condoms notwithstanding.
During his inauguration homily he spoke of the human race living
in a kind of desert -- a world without respect for human dignity
and purpose with little regard for the Church's perspective on
the issues noted above. He implied that as pope he would seek
to address what he described as the deserts within, the
""emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal
of human life"" that he believes contribute to the deserts of
poverty, hunger, and other earthly ills.
6. (SBU) In this regard, Benedict will maintain his
predecessor's attention to poverty and development issues, to
human rights, and religious freedom. In one area of continuing
U.S. human rights focus -- human trafficking -- Pope Benedict
has already spoken of his concern for this issue, ensuring that
we will be able to continue the recent progress made with the
Holy See in combating and preventing trafficking in persons.
Pope John Paul had provided moral backing for our trafficking
initiatives with various Holy See departments. Just prior to
his election, Pope Benedict publicly condemned human
trafficking, trafficking in organs, and human slavery during the
Good Friday meditations he delivered that were broadcast live to
hundreds of millions of television viewers.
--------------
First Message to Diplomats
--------------
7. (SBU) In his first formal meeting with the Vatican
diplomatic corps May 12, Pope Benedict outlined for the first
time his broad foreign policy priorities, again signaling strong
continuities with John Paul II's focus on human dignity, human
rights, peace, and social and economic development. Citing his
origins from a country ""that has known war and the separation of
brothers even from the same country,"" he stressed that he will
be ""particularly sensitive to dialogue"" among different peoples,
and would work to overcome international conflict and tensions.
Describing Nazism and Communism as destructive and inhumane
ideologies that imposed a yoke of oppression, Benedict said the
Church, diplomats, governments and people of good will were
charged with building a peaceful society to ""vanquish the
temptation to pit cultures, ethnic groups and differing world
views against each other.""
8. (U) Recalling Pope John Paul II's ""unique service to the
cause of the unity of the human family"", he recommitted the Holy
See to safeguarding the fundamental human rights under threat in
different parts of the world. The Church would work, he said,
to ensure every person had the right to life, nutrition,
shelter, health care, the protection of the family, and social
development. Our bilateral cooperation with the new pope and
his administration is likely to find fertile soil in these areas.
9. (SBU) The biggest surprise of his first presentation was his
pointed appeal to China and other nations that have yet to
establish formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See (ref c).
The Holy See already has relations with 174 countries, and the
pope made clear that he would like to extend that representation
even further. Leaving no doubt of his focus on China and
Vietnam in particular, he expressed his hope that countries
(such as China) that had sent condolence messages on the death
of his predecessor or had send delegations to the funeral (such
as Vietnam) would soon be represented at the Vatican. This
signals Pope Benedict's desire to build on Pope John Paul II's
broad foundation of international activity and, in this way, to
expand the religious liberty for Catholics and those of other
faiths.
--------------
Sexual Abuse
--------------
10. (SBU) By most accounts, Benedict is intimately aware of the
details of sexual-abuse scandals that have consumed the media in
recent years. In fact, some of his close associates have
suggested he is perhaps more familiar with the dimensions and
details of the problem than any other Curial official, given
that his former Congregation is the Vatican department that
oversees the investigation of clergy charged with abuse. One
former colleague who worked in CDF with Ratzinger for years told
us that staff routinely reviewed the files of allegations
against clergy the world over every Friday with Ratzinger, a
process that they came to refer to as their ""Friday penance.""
Benedict XVI may well believe that in the case of the crisis in
the U.S. Church, the American media treated the clergy as a
group unfairly, and in some cases have used the crisis to
promote their own agendas. But he has no doubt that the crisis
was real. In a stern sermon delivered before the conclave (ref
a) in which he decried all types of evil facing society, the
pope lashed out at the ""filth"" to be found among Catholic
clergy. Our contacts were struck by the strength of the
language, and told us that Ratzinger's German text had used an
even stronger word. None of this means that Rome will overturn
centuries of traditional hesitation in stepping into the
personnel matters of individual dioceses; however, Benedict XVI
will give due attention to the state of seminary training and
the type of men who want to become priests (a program of checks
begins shortly in American seminaries.) He may also offer more
guidance to bishops on these issues than did Pope John Paul II.
--------------
Inter-religious Dialogue
--------------
11. (SBU) After his election as pope, the sensationalistic
British press ran headlines about young Joseph Ratzinger's
membership in the Hitler Youth. Some observers also depicted
him as hostile to other faiths, particularly due to a document
issued in 2000 on the nature of the Church and the process of
salvation that pronounced Christ and the Catholic Church as
unique in that process -- a document that was intended to
address internal Church debates rather than its relations with
other faiths. In fact, Ratzinger was a major part of Pope John
Paul's great strides in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.
John Paul II generally pushed forward with his initiatives on
this front only after securing the theological and
ecclesiastical underpinnings necessary to do so, and Ratzinger
was the official who gave him that backing. Ratzinger's career
and his words since becoming pope suggest he will continue to
reach out to other Christian churches and to other world
religions, particularly Judaism and Islam.
12. (SBU) Comments about the new Pope from religious leaders
around the world have with few exceptions been very positive,
especially among Muslims and Jews. Fr. Norbert Hofmann, the
Secretary of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations
SIPDIS
with Jews, told us he expected great things from the Ratzinger
papacy. He noted that Benedict had granted his first private
audience for a Vatican dicastery to his office. Though it
probably didn't hurt that Hofmann and his boss, Cardinal Walter
Kasper, are Germans, the signal is significant, and has been
backed up by a number of early public references by the new pope
for his desire to build close ties with Judaism. Benedict XVI
will almost certainly insist on the Catholic Church taking an
unwavering position on its doctrine within future ecumenical and
inter-religious dialogue, but this clarity and honesty, combined
with a desire for dialogue, could yield tangible results in a
process that has suffered from a lack of clear guidelines for
many Catholics engaged in dialogue with other faiths.
--------------
War, Peace, Iraq
--------------
13. (SBU) On issues of war and peace, Benedict XVI has been
consistent and vocal. After September 11, he strongly condemned
religiously-inspired violence and noted that the Christian
tradition of just war theory needed to be updated on the basis
of ""new dangers"" in the world. However, in the lead-up to the
coalition's invasion of Iraq, Ratzinger stated repeatedly and
unequivocally that the concept of preventive war did not appear
in the official teachings of the Catholic Church, and maintained
that the war against Iraq had no moral justification. As
coalition troops took control of the country, Ratzinger
expressed his satisfaction that the end of the war was drawing
near. Like Pope John Paul II, he turned the page on the
decision to go to war, and described the end of hostilities as a
chance to ""begin again,"" urging broad participation by the
international community in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Ratzinger emphasized the benefits of multilateralism and his
preference for a preeminent role for the United Nations,
declaring that no one nation should ever make decisions for the
world. Pope Benedict XVI is therefore likely to continue to
advocate multilateralism on war and peace issues. Because of
his close experience of the evil of some ideologies, he will
continue to recognize that nations may justifiably use force to
defend their citizens, but he, like John Paul II, will likely
express a hearty skepticism for the benefits of any war.
--------------
Comment
--------------
14. (SBU) Taking on the papacy after one of the longest and
most compelling reigns in history, Pope Benedict XVI has made a
strong start as pontiff. He has maintained respect for his
predecessor while tracing the outlines of what he plans to be
the work of his own pontificate. In this way, he has succeeded
in assuring the faithful with continuity, while at the same time
making clear his desire to pursue this course with his own
approach. Significantly, he has made clear that he see himself
first and foremost as the successor of the Apostle Peter, not of
John Paul II.
15. (SBU) In foreign affairs, Pope Benedict XVI will, as he
indicated to the diplomatic corps, continue to pursue the same
broad goals as John Paul II, using the Holy See's moral voice to
promote human dignity, peace, and social and economic
development. While he will certainly develop his own
distinctive style in foreign affairs, he is coming to the papacy
at an advanced age, without substantial foreign policy
experience, and will not have the luxury of time that John Paul
II had to develop detailed global geo-political expertise. Our
contacts in the Curia expect Pope Benedict to rely on the
Vatican Foreign Ministry as he wades into these issues. In
fact, one senior official noted that his address to the
diplomatic corps was the only one of his early addresses that he
did not draft himself. By keeping Secretary of State Sodano and
Secretary for Relations with States Lajolo in their positions,
SIPDIS
he has foreign affairs counsel that he trusts, and which will
ensure broad continuity in the Vatican's successful foreign
engagement.
SIGNATURE
NNNN
2005VATICA00479 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
"
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
DEPT. FOR EUR/WE (LEVIN); EUR/PPD; INR
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR VT
SUBJECT: BENEDICT XVI: LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEW PONTIFICATE - PART
TWO
REF: A) VATICAN 0467; B) VATICAN 0475; C) VATICAN 0477
1. (U) This cable is the second of a series previewing the
pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. The first part (ref b)
examined the reasons for the election of Pope Benedict and
initial signals on directions for his papacy. This second cable
examines the approach he is likely to take on major issues. A
third cable will address the way that Benedict is likely to
govern the Church and the dynamics of his management of the
Curia.
--------------
Summary
--------------
2. (SBU) The pontificate of Benedict XVI is not likely to bring
about dramatic changes on issues facing the Catholic Church
internally or externally. As one of John Paul II's closest
collaborators, and one who perhaps more than any other member of
the Curia helped shape John Paul II's pontificate, it would be
unthinkable, as one of Pope Benedict's closest collaborators
told us last week, that Pope Benedict would shift the Holy See's
main doctrinal lines on core moral issues such as abortion,
euthanasia, artificial contraception, cloning, and
homosexuality. Despite his strong defense of Catholic doctrine
in a major 1999 document, he has already demonstrated a desire
to continue John Paul II's efforts to promote inter-religious
dialogue, and may be able to make more progress on
Orthodox-Catholic dialogue than his Slavic predecessor. Pope
Benedict has also indicted that he will press to continue
expanding the Holy See's diplomatic relations to encompass
countries where Catholic populations have faced religions
restrictions and Muslim countries where Catholic populations are
small or forced underground. On issues of war and peace,
Benedict XVI, whose experience of World War II remains vivid,
will continue John Paul II's efforts to promote peace. At the
same time, recognizing the need to confront evil, he will be
open to the idea that war may be necessary as a last resort. As
a theologian who has devoted his life to theological debates,
the new pope's views on international issues will likely take
shape over time through his meetings with heads of state and
government and in his contact with this Curial team -- which
remains unchanged to date from that of John Paul II. He is said
to like the United States, had more Americans on his staff than
most other Curial heads, and sent an important signal with his
first appointment, calling an American to head the Holy See's
most important dicastery. End Summary.
--------------
From Prefect to Pope
--------------
3. (SBU) While many observers are seeking to draw conclusions
about the contours of Benedict XVI's pontificate based on his 21
years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith (CDF),many Vatican officials have cautioned that there is
a vast difference between being Prefect of CDF and being Pope.
Ratzinger is no longer the Church's top official for
safeguarding Catholic theological orthodoxy, and it will no
longer fall to him personally to set wayward theologians or
other Catholics back on the straight and narrow path. He has
already softened his image as doctrinal enforcer, and begun his
effort to convince the world of what describes as ""the common
values and common truths on the essentials of human life -- how
to live and how to respond to the great challenges of our time.""
Specifically, Benedict XVI has called for ""moral
responsibility, love and justice"" to be introduced into the
world of work, trade and politics.
4. (SBU) While Benedict will no longer have to ""play the heavy""
on doctrine, this does not translate into greater freedom
generally for the new pontiff. On the contrary, he will no
longer be as free to speak and act as he was prior to his
election as the 264th successor of Peter. As a global leader in
a global age, Pope Benedict XVI's every word will be analyzed
and taken as the authoritative view of the Catholic Church.
Early indications are that Benedict is well aware of these
distinctions, and that he has the potential to frame with
clarity some of the leading international challenges of the
twenty-first century. In the first month of his pontificate, he
has signaled his desire to seek consensus, build bridges, listen
to differing opinions, and speak the language of reconciliation
and rapprochement. Most Church observers have been enthusiastic
upon seeing the human side of Benedict few witnessed before his
election.
--------------
Staying the Course on ""Moral Issues""
--------------
5. (SBU) The warmer public image of Pope Benedict XVI that has
developed (and which his close associates assure us is much
closer to reality than the traditional media portrayal of
Cardinal Ratzinger) does not mean he has plans for a makeover of
the Catholic Church's uncompromising stands on the sexual,
bioethical, and family issues facing Catholics and the world
community. Associates of the new pope have assured us there
will be no change in the Catholic Church's position on abortion,
euthanasia, artificial contraception, cloning, divorce and
homosexuality. Benedict's approach to bioethical and
biotechnological issues is likely to be founded on the core
question: are new scientific procedures and possibilities
conducive to real human advancement or will they lead to human
destruction? The new pope will reach out to women, but he will
not ordain them as priests. Benedict XVI will continue to
support the Catholic Church's considerable efforts to care for
persons with HIV/AIDS, its ban on condoms notwithstanding.
During his inauguration homily he spoke of the human race living
in a kind of desert -- a world without respect for human dignity
and purpose with little regard for the Church's perspective on
the issues noted above. He implied that as pope he would seek
to address what he described as the deserts within, the
""emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal
of human life"" that he believes contribute to the deserts of
poverty, hunger, and other earthly ills.
6. (SBU) In this regard, Benedict will maintain his
predecessor's attention to poverty and development issues, to
human rights, and religious freedom. In one area of continuing
U.S. human rights focus -- human trafficking -- Pope Benedict
has already spoken of his concern for this issue, ensuring that
we will be able to continue the recent progress made with the
Holy See in combating and preventing trafficking in persons.
Pope John Paul had provided moral backing for our trafficking
initiatives with various Holy See departments. Just prior to
his election, Pope Benedict publicly condemned human
trafficking, trafficking in organs, and human slavery during the
Good Friday meditations he delivered that were broadcast live to
hundreds of millions of television viewers.
--------------
First Message to Diplomats
--------------
7. (SBU) In his first formal meeting with the Vatican
diplomatic corps May 12, Pope Benedict outlined for the first
time his broad foreign policy priorities, again signaling strong
continuities with John Paul II's focus on human dignity, human
rights, peace, and social and economic development. Citing his
origins from a country ""that has known war and the separation of
brothers even from the same country,"" he stressed that he will
be ""particularly sensitive to dialogue"" among different peoples,
and would work to overcome international conflict and tensions.
Describing Nazism and Communism as destructive and inhumane
ideologies that imposed a yoke of oppression, Benedict said the
Church, diplomats, governments and people of good will were
charged with building a peaceful society to ""vanquish the
temptation to pit cultures, ethnic groups and differing world
views against each other.""
8. (U) Recalling Pope John Paul II's ""unique service to the
cause of the unity of the human family"", he recommitted the Holy
See to safeguarding the fundamental human rights under threat in
different parts of the world. The Church would work, he said,
to ensure every person had the right to life, nutrition,
shelter, health care, the protection of the family, and social
development. Our bilateral cooperation with the new pope and
his administration is likely to find fertile soil in these areas.
9. (SBU) The biggest surprise of his first presentation was his
pointed appeal to China and other nations that have yet to
establish formal diplomatic relations with the Holy See (ref c).
The Holy See already has relations with 174 countries, and the
pope made clear that he would like to extend that representation
even further. Leaving no doubt of his focus on China and
Vietnam in particular, he expressed his hope that countries
(such as China) that had sent condolence messages on the death
of his predecessor or had send delegations to the funeral (such
as Vietnam) would soon be represented at the Vatican. This
signals Pope Benedict's desire to build on Pope John Paul II's
broad foundation of international activity and, in this way, to
expand the religious liberty for Catholics and those of other
faiths.
--------------
Sexual Abuse
--------------
10. (SBU) By most accounts, Benedict is intimately aware of the
details of sexual-abuse scandals that have consumed the media in
recent years. In fact, some of his close associates have
suggested he is perhaps more familiar with the dimensions and
details of the problem than any other Curial official, given
that his former Congregation is the Vatican department that
oversees the investigation of clergy charged with abuse. One
former colleague who worked in CDF with Ratzinger for years told
us that staff routinely reviewed the files of allegations
against clergy the world over every Friday with Ratzinger, a
process that they came to refer to as their ""Friday penance.""
Benedict XVI may well believe that in the case of the crisis in
the U.S. Church, the American media treated the clergy as a
group unfairly, and in some cases have used the crisis to
promote their own agendas. But he has no doubt that the crisis
was real. In a stern sermon delivered before the conclave (ref
a) in which he decried all types of evil facing society, the
pope lashed out at the ""filth"" to be found among Catholic
clergy. Our contacts were struck by the strength of the
language, and told us that Ratzinger's German text had used an
even stronger word. None of this means that Rome will overturn
centuries of traditional hesitation in stepping into the
personnel matters of individual dioceses; however, Benedict XVI
will give due attention to the state of seminary training and
the type of men who want to become priests (a program of checks
begins shortly in American seminaries.) He may also offer more
guidance to bishops on these issues than did Pope John Paul II.
--------------
Inter-religious Dialogue
--------------
11. (SBU) After his election as pope, the sensationalistic
British press ran headlines about young Joseph Ratzinger's
membership in the Hitler Youth. Some observers also depicted
him as hostile to other faiths, particularly due to a document
issued in 2000 on the nature of the Church and the process of
salvation that pronounced Christ and the Catholic Church as
unique in that process -- a document that was intended to
address internal Church debates rather than its relations with
other faiths. In fact, Ratzinger was a major part of Pope John
Paul's great strides in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.
John Paul II generally pushed forward with his initiatives on
this front only after securing the theological and
ecclesiastical underpinnings necessary to do so, and Ratzinger
was the official who gave him that backing. Ratzinger's career
and his words since becoming pope suggest he will continue to
reach out to other Christian churches and to other world
religions, particularly Judaism and Islam.
12. (SBU) Comments about the new Pope from religious leaders
around the world have with few exceptions been very positive,
especially among Muslims and Jews. Fr. Norbert Hofmann, the
Secretary of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations
SIPDIS
with Jews, told us he expected great things from the Ratzinger
papacy. He noted that Benedict had granted his first private
audience for a Vatican dicastery to his office. Though it
probably didn't hurt that Hofmann and his boss, Cardinal Walter
Kasper, are Germans, the signal is significant, and has been
backed up by a number of early public references by the new pope
for his desire to build close ties with Judaism. Benedict XVI
will almost certainly insist on the Catholic Church taking an
unwavering position on its doctrine within future ecumenical and
inter-religious dialogue, but this clarity and honesty, combined
with a desire for dialogue, could yield tangible results in a
process that has suffered from a lack of clear guidelines for
many Catholics engaged in dialogue with other faiths.
--------------
War, Peace, Iraq
--------------
13. (SBU) On issues of war and peace, Benedict XVI has been
consistent and vocal. After September 11, he strongly condemned
religiously-inspired violence and noted that the Christian
tradition of just war theory needed to be updated on the basis
of ""new dangers"" in the world. However, in the lead-up to the
coalition's invasion of Iraq, Ratzinger stated repeatedly and
unequivocally that the concept of preventive war did not appear
in the official teachings of the Catholic Church, and maintained
that the war against Iraq had no moral justification. As
coalition troops took control of the country, Ratzinger
expressed his satisfaction that the end of the war was drawing
near. Like Pope John Paul II, he turned the page on the
decision to go to war, and described the end of hostilities as a
chance to ""begin again,"" urging broad participation by the
international community in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Ratzinger emphasized the benefits of multilateralism and his
preference for a preeminent role for the United Nations,
declaring that no one nation should ever make decisions for the
world. Pope Benedict XVI is therefore likely to continue to
advocate multilateralism on war and peace issues. Because of
his close experience of the evil of some ideologies, he will
continue to recognize that nations may justifiably use force to
defend their citizens, but he, like John Paul II, will likely
express a hearty skepticism for the benefits of any war.
--------------
Comment
--------------
14. (SBU) Taking on the papacy after one of the longest and
most compelling reigns in history, Pope Benedict XVI has made a
strong start as pontiff. He has maintained respect for his
predecessor while tracing the outlines of what he plans to be
the work of his own pontificate. In this way, he has succeeded
in assuring the faithful with continuity, while at the same time
making clear his desire to pursue this course with his own
approach. Significantly, he has made clear that he see himself
first and foremost as the successor of the Apostle Peter, not of
John Paul II.
15. (SBU) In foreign affairs, Pope Benedict XVI will, as he
indicated to the diplomatic corps, continue to pursue the same
broad goals as John Paul II, using the Holy See's moral voice to
promote human dignity, peace, and social and economic
development. While he will certainly develop his own
distinctive style in foreign affairs, he is coming to the papacy
at an advanced age, without substantial foreign policy
experience, and will not have the luxury of time that John Paul
II had to develop detailed global geo-political expertise. Our
contacts in the Curia expect Pope Benedict to rely on the
Vatican Foreign Ministry as he wades into these issues. In
fact, one senior official noted that his address to the
diplomatic corps was the only one of his early addresses that he
did not draft himself. By keeping Secretary of State Sodano and
Secretary for Relations with States Lajolo in their positions,
SIPDIS
he has foreign affairs counsel that he trusts, and which will
ensure broad continuity in the Vatican's successful foreign
engagement.
SIGNATURE
NNNN
2005VATICA00479 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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