VZCZCXRO5323
PP RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDH RUEHFL RUEHKUK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLH RUEHNP
RUEHPW RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHTRO
DE RUEHROV #0015/01 0221434
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 221434Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY VATICAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1245
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0132
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0095
RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 1284

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 VATICAN 000015 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  1/22/2035 
TAGS: PREL KIRF PGOV PHUM PREF SA IS TU VT
SUBJECT: CARDINAL SAYS SAUDI ARABIA SHOULD PERMIT CHURCHES, DECRIES 
FEAR OF MUSLIMS IN EUROPE 
 
REF: A. A. VATICAN 137 
     ¶B. B. VATICAN 135 
     ¶C. C. 08 VATICAN 87 
     ¶D. D. 09 BERN 513 
 
VATICAN 00000015  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Julieta Valls Noyes, DCM. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
Summary 
 
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¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  The Vatican's interfaith Czar, Cardinal Jean 
Louis Tauran, renewed his call for all societies to recognize 
freedom of religion in a recent press interview.  Tauran also 
asked for concrete measures that move interfaith relations from 
mere tolerance to harmonious coexistence of peoples of different 
faiths.  For that, he said, participants in interfaith dialogue 
must ensure that what they are doing institutionally is 
publicized to and embraced at the grassroots.  As a case in 
point, Tauran attributed Swiss voters' decision to ban minarets 
to ignorance.  His recently concluded trip to Indonesia, 
however, was an example of positive engagement at every level. 
 
Tauran's comments underline the Vatican's focus on tangible 
results from formal inter-religious dialogues, particularly with 
Muslims, and especially in the area of religious freedom. 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Collaboration with the Vatican on select interfaith 
issues can advance the USG goal to have faith-based 
organizations from the world's major religions cooperate with 
each other and with the USG to attain specific, action-oriented 
results (see paragraph 8).  End Summary. 
 
 
 
 
 
Freedom to Worship is Not Freedom of Religion 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In a January 5 interview with the Vatican daily, 
 
"L'Osservatore Romano," Cardinal Tauran drew distinctions 
between freedom of religion and freedom of worship.  Freedom of 
religion should entail a partnership of different religious 
groups in public life, and should become a civil right 
recognized by law in all societies.  Freedom of worship, he 
implied, is often limited to tolerance of religious minorities. 
Tauran lamented that Saudi Arabia, unlike some other Gulf 
countries, continues to deny the almost two million Christians 
in the country a church to celebrate the sacraments -- a 
violation of freedom of worship, not to mention freedom of 
religion.  In the same way that it is important for Jews and 
Muslims to have synagogues or mosques, he said, Christians need 
churches.  He said that it was intolerable for Christian places 
of worship to be reduced, in some Islamic countries, to museums. 
 (Note:  Tauran did not name names in the interview, but the 
Vatican is upset that a shrine at the site of Saint Paul's birth 
is now a Turkish government museum.  The Vatican is also 
concerned about the future of Christian sacred sites in Israel. 
End note). 
 
 
 
Solemn Declarations Not Reaching the Grassroots 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
 
¶4. (U) Tauran said a lack of "reciprocal understanding" is the 
main obstacle to better inter-faith relations at the grassroots 
level.  Reflecting on the impact of the first Catholic-Muslim 
Forum held in November of 2008 (ref. C), Tauran said  "It is no 
small feat to have Muslims and Christians come together and 
affirm that men and women are equal in dignity, that everyone 
has a right to practice his own religion in private and public, 
that religious symbols should be respected, and that religion 
can not be used to justify terrorism or fundamentalism." 
However, he worried that the significance of the joint final 
statement did not reach the grassroots because of the reluctance 
of some Arab media to cover the meeting. 
 
 
 
 
VATICAN 00000015  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Swiss Vote Shows Europeans are Ignorant about Islam 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U) Ignorance and groundless fear are behind Swiss voters' 
decision to ban construction of new minarets in their country 
(ref. D), according to Tauran.  The Cardinal rhetorically asked 
if voters had actually met with Muslims or opened a copy of the 
Koran.  At the same time, Tauran said Muslim immigrants should 
aim to integrate themselves as best they could within European 
society and culture.  He thought it was possible for Muslims in 
Europe to maintain their religious principles while recognizing 
the difference between civil law and religious precepts and the 
separation of religion and state.  Europeans, he said, also 
should seek to engage Muslims to better understand Islamic 
culture. 
 
 
 
Good Reviews for Indonesia Trip 
 
------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶6.  (U) Tauran was positive about his recent trip to Indonesia. 
He thought the country's constitutional principle of "pancasila" 
- belief in one God, a just and civilized humanity, national 
unity, democracy and social justice - was key to religious 
harmony because people of different faiths all recognized their 
own belief systems in it.  Christians made up only 3 percent of 
the Indonesian population, but incidents of religious 
intolerance and Islamic fanaticism were rare.  There are fifteen 
Catholic universities in Indonesia, which enrich the country's 
educational landscape.  Tauran said that he had urged local 
Catholic bishops to devote at least one Sunday a year to 
inter-religious dialogue.  He had also called on the Indonesian 
authorities to re-visit school texts that had erroneous 
descriptions of Christianity. 
 
 
 
Comment:  Opportunities for Cooperation with the US 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
 
 
¶7.  (C) Inter-religious dialogue has been an element of the Holy 
See's international engagement for more than forty years.  The 
Vatican's objective since Tauran took charge of the Pontifical 
Council on Inter-religious dialogue has been for dialogue to 
produce tangible results.  From his vantage point as a career 
Vatican diplomat, Tauran initially focused on inter-religious 
dialogue mostly as a vehicle to advance the Vatican's top 
foreign policy goal -- advancing religious freedom.  This made 
him a "hawk" among the Vatican Curia engaging Muslims.  Lately, 
however, he has become more receptive to education and better 
mutual understanding at the grassroots level as key goals for 
interfaith dialogue. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (C) Beyond education for mutual understanding and promoting 
religious freedom, the third, as yet less developed pillar of 
the Vatican's interfaith engagement is cooperation on specific 
goals.  These include topics like promoting world peace or 
protecting the environment.  As discussed in ref. A, the U.S. 
can engage actively with the Vatican on all three pillars of its 
interfaith strategy. 
 
 
 
¶9.  (C) In addition, Embassy contacts who follow interfaith 
dialogues note that Christian-Muslim dialogue also fosters 
intra-faith understanding.  The Muslim side of the 
Catholic-Muslim Forum is itself a venue for Sunni and Shia 
Muslims to reach common positions vis-a-vis the Vatican.  As 
most victims of Muslim extremism around the world are Muslims 
themselves, inter-religious dialogue's ability to reduce 
intra-faith tension in Muslim majority countries could be 
significant.  Embassy Vatican stands ready to support efforts to 
participate in and/or broadly disseminate the outcomes of 
interfaith meetings. 
DIAZ