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OO RUEHDU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHSR RUEHTRO
DE RUEHROV #0033/01 0911748
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O P 311748Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY VATICAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0929
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 0029
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA PRIORITY 0022
RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 0020
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 0963

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 VATICAN 000033 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  3/31/2018 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KIRF OVIP VT
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR POPE BENEDICT XVI'S APRIL 15-20 VISIT TO 
WASHINGTON, DC AND NEW YORK 
 
REF: A)  VATICAN 17 AND PREVIOUS     B) VATICAN 31 
 
VATICAN 00000033  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Christopher Sandrolini, Deputy Chief of Mission, 
EXEC, State. 
REASON: 1.4 (d) 
¶1. (C) Summary.  The Pope is likely to highlight faith and 
reason, natural law, human rights, and inter-religious dialogue 
during his upcoming trip to the US.  He is also likely to 
address environmental issues and express concern for the plight 
of Christians in the Middle East.  The Pope appreciates the 
President's stand on bio-ethics and against abortion.  Secretary 
Bertone is likely to discuss Cuba and the Middle East on his 
discussion with Secretary Rice.  The Pope and Secretary Bertone 
will most likely thank the USG for our assistance to less 
developed countries, particularly in Africa.  From our 
conversations with Holy See officials, it seems that the Vatican 
is still working on the substance of the Pope's meetings.  Post 
will update the Department on any additional information we may 
receive.  Following are our best guesses about the content of 
the Pope's address to the UN and his meeting with the President. 
 End summary. 
 
Introduction 
 
------------ 
 
¶2. (C) The April 15-20 visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Washington 
and New York promises to be significant for both the United 
States and the Holy See.  It will be the first official U.S. 
visit for Pope Benedict, who was an infrequent visitor to the 
United States even before becoming Pope in 2005 (having been 
only twice in the past 15 years).  It will also mark only the 
second papal visit in history to the White House, following that 
of Pope John Paul II in 1979.  As with all papal visits, the 
primary purpose is pastoral.  While this activity is of great 
importance to the Church, we will not address it in this cable. 
 
¶3. (C) Apart from strictly pastoral concerns, Pope Benedict will 
certainly also be conscious of the symbolic and substantive 
importance of his visits to the White House and to the United 
Nations (which was the original purpose of the trip).  This Pope 
is less charismatic than his famous predecessor, John Paul II, 
though he retains great popularity and respect.  Benedict, as 
befits a longtime professor, is primarily an authoritative 
thinker and a teacher; his speeches no less than his writings 
are carefully crafted and focus more on constructing logical 
arguments than on poetry or dramatic effects. 
 
 
 
Faith and Reason 
 
---------------- 
 
¶4. (C) The essential link between faith and reason has been one 
of Benedict's frequent themes, and one he is likely to sound 
again in the U.S.  In Regensburg in September of 2006, he used 
this approach to argue that religion and violence are 
fundamentally incompatible, but even more to stress that Europe 
(hence also the modern West) was fundamentally shaped by the 
dual inheritance of Greek philosophy and Biblical faith. 
Benedict concludes that the West today must preserve this 
marriage of faith and reason against the danger of 
hyper-secularization ("the dictatorship of relativism") and the 
loss of absolute moral values based on human dignity. 
 
The Pope in New York 
 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Although he will be at the UN for about three hours, 
Benedict is allotted only 20 minutes for his speech to the 
United Nations General Assembly (though he might stretch that by 
a few minutes).  This is just as well, since he will need to 
focus his message tightly.  He will be very conscious of the 
powerful precedent of John Paul II's 1995 UN address, which 
built on the then-recent collapse of communism to emphasize 
human rights, the role of the UN as a "moral center", and the 
need for nations to work together for justice, peace, and 
solidarity with the poor.  Whatever the specifics of Pope 
Benedict's address, it will be informed by these same broad 
considerations.  The sixtieth anniversary of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights gives the Pope another good reason 
to focus on human rights in particular. 
 
¶6. (C) We understand from our Holy See contacts that the Pope 
will touch on inter-religious dialogue in his address to the 
United Nations; he has praised the U.S. in the past for our 
experience and efforts in this area.   We judge that the Pope is 
sincerely committed to inter-religious dialogue (reftel A), but 
 
VATICAN 00000033  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
his even stronger commitment to the Church's evangelical 
imperative will continue to complicate the course of dialogue 
with Islam during this papacy. 
 
¶7. (C) There has been speculation that the Pope will address the 
environment -- understood as respect for creation -- at the UN, 
though we haven't been able to confirm that.  The Holy See 
believes that human beings are at the center of the environment, 
and therefore have inescapable responsibilities to steward it. 
The Holy See's approach, while typically understated, clearly 
favors serious international cooperation now to address what it 
considers a grave threat to the Earth; it also suggests that 
wealthier nations have a correspondingly greater responsibility. 
 Benedict might also choose to explore "human ecology" (as he 
did in his January 2007 World Day of Peace message), which 
carries social as well as economic and scientific implications. 
 
¶8. (C) Whatever his specific topics may be, Benedict is certain 
to weave them into an overarching theme stressing the essential 
role of the United Nations as a moral voice, and the need for 
international relations to be based on an unchanging natural 
moral law.  He dwelt on this, for example, in a recent address 
to Catholic NGOs, decrying "lack of concern for economic and 
social needs of poorer nations", "contempt for humanitarian 
law", and "selective defense of human rights".   A senior 
Vatican contact also tipped us to Benedict's address a year ago 
to European bishops, which focuses on very similar themes: 
respect for the environment, structured access to energy 
resources, incentives for solidarity with the poor, the 
foundational role of Christianity in Europe, the reaffirmation 
of universal values, and the existence of natural law as the 
source of all rights.  Most relevant of all, in the Pope's 
welcoming remarks to Ambassador Glendon a few weeks ago, he also 
emphasized common moral law as a basis for human rights.  In 
that welcome were also present the Church's regular 
denunciations of nuclear weapons and the arms race, and clear 
encouragement for the U.S. to continue efforts to resolve the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 
 
Pope's Meeting with President Bush 
 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) During the President's visit to the Pope last June, they 
discussed a number of topics:  Palestine, Holy See-Israel 
relations, Lebanon, Iraq, Christians in the Middle East, China, 
Africa, and Latin America.  (Post does not have further detail 
on this conversation.)  We would expect the Pope to mention some 
of these topics again, specifically the still unresolved 
problems between the Holy See and Israel, but at a fairly 
general level.  He may also prefer to focus entirely on broader 
topics such as peace or religious freedom.  Benedict to date has 
not devoted much attention to foreign affairs, preferring to 
leave this in the hands of his Secretary of State, Cardinal 
Bertone. 
 
¶10. (C) The Pope has a well-known appreciation of the United 
States as a country which is both secular in its institutions 
and highly religious in its culture -- in contrast to Europe, 
his principal preoccupation.  He is also a kind and gracious man 
who will look forward to a warm conversation with the President; 
he will likely mention his planned April 20 visit to Ground Zero 
so as to express solidarity with the United States in combating 
terrorism, and also praise the President's stand on bioethics, 
abortion and immigration.  However, the Pope's admiration for 
the U.S. is not unlimited.  He is often critical of many aspects 
of modern market economies such as that of the United States, 
including too much emphasis on consumption, individualism, 
consumerism and materialism, and too little solidarity with the 
poor.  Similarly, while the Holy See has refrained in recent 
years from criticizing the war in Iraq (which it vigorously 
opposed at the outset), it remains convinced that the war was an 
error which has destabilized the Middle East and endangered 
Christian communities there. 
 
¶11. (C) We suggest emphasizing the role of the United States and 
the Catholic Church as the world's largest provider and 
distributor, respectively, of humanitarian aid around the world 
-- and especially in Africa.  This will resonate with the Pope, 
and may also help to raise the Holy See's appreciation of how 
much the United States helps the world through private as well 
as public contributions. 
 
Cardinal Bertone 
 
---------------- 
 
VATICAN 00000033  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶12. (C) While the Pope meets alone with the President, Cardinal 
Bertone will meet Secretary Rice -- accompanied by the Papal 
Nuncio and Ambassador Glendon.  As Bertone does not speak 
English, the effective time of the meeting will be reduced owing 
to the need for interpreting.  This will be the best opportunity 
for us to raise key issues, as Bertone has a very strong voice 
over the Holy See's foreign policy.  Bertone is fairly 
outspoken, and somewhat egotistic as well.  He has spoken 
strongly in favor of international organizations in contexts 
which make clear his distaste for the war in Iraq (including 
references to "unilateralism" and "the idolatry of technology"). 
 In this he reflects also the views of key subordinates, such as 
Archbishop Filoni -- the nuncio in Baghdad in 2003, now the 
Sostituto -- who will be present on the visit.  We would expect 
Bertone to call for increased support for the United Nations as 
a moral force -- previewing a likely theme for the Pope's UN 
address. 
 
¶13. (C) During his meeting with the President last June, Bertone 
focused on the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.  He 
described the suffering of Christians in the Middle East and the 
need for unity in Lebanon, and suggested that the U.S. be more 
open to Iran, offering the Holy See's good offices in this 
regard.  Bertone appreciated the important American 
contributions in Africa, including campaigns against hunger, 
corruption, and infectious diseases.  He complained about 
persecution of the Church in Rwanda, and the President promised 
to look into it.  Bertone also pressed for action in Sudan. 
After brief discussion of China and Venezuela, the President and 
Bertone discussed Cuba, with the cardinal taking a somewhat more 
positive view of that country.  In conclusion, Bertone praised 
the U.S. pro-life and pro-family stands. 
 
¶14. (C) For his meeting with Secretary Rice, Bertone is likely 
to raise Cuba.  Ambassador Glendon called on Bertone just after 
his return from Havana, and he was eager to discuss it (reftel 
B).  The cardinal's statements about his trip were generally 
positive, and he appears convinced that things there are looking 
up both for the Church and for society overall.  Bertone is more 
optimistic than the USG about Raul Castro.  He will press for 
the U.S. to lift its "embargo".  We suggest responding that 
easing of economic sanctions is necessarily linked to 
substantial, actual improvements in human rights in Cuba, and 
anything the Church can do to speed this will be welcome. 
 
¶15. (C) Bertone is sure to raise the plight of Christians in the 
Middle East, and more likely than the Pope to suggest that U.S. 
policy there has been too unilateral and not well considered. 
 
Christians have been emigrating from Iraq, Lebanon, and other 
parts of the Middle East in large numbers, and historic 
Christian communities (such as the Chaldeans) are in real danger 
of dropping below sustainable levels. 
 
¶16. (C) On Lebanon and Israeli/Palestinian issues, Bertone may 
suggest that the U.S. be more inclusive in its negotiations -- 
i.e., work with Syria, Iran, and Hamas.  The Holy See is well 
aware of our views on this, but is itself committed by nature to 
broad dialogue. The Holy See's bilateral relationship with 
Israel has been a source of considerable frustration because the 
Vatican feels that Israel has acted in bad faith since the 
signing of the Fundamental Agreement in 1994.  Bertone may ask 
for additional U.S. support in pressing Israel to be more 
cooperative. 
 
¶17. (C) While the topic of China may arise, we would not expect 
Bertone to seek anything from the U.S. in this regard.  The Holy 
See prefers to keep a low profile in its long and patient effort 
to reach diplomatic agreement with Beijing, and has in the past 
asked the U.S. to avoid raising this with the Chinese -- though 
general calls for religious freedom are welcome. 
 
Comment 
 
------- 
 
¶18. (C) Pope Benedict is a voluminous writer, churning out 
books, encyclicals, speeches, and many other documents 
(composing in longhand) on a wide range of subjects.  This, 
combined with the habitual opacity of the Vatican Curia about 
the Pope's intentions, makes it hard to predict what he may say 
to the President or to the United Nations; moreover it is clear 
from our conversations that the visit is still a work in 
progress for the Holy See.  Post will continue to engage Curia 
officials at all levels and will update the Department on any 
 
VATICAN 00000033  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
additional information we may receive regarding the Pope's visit. 
GLENDON