Benedict may discuss warming, cost of wars
Stances have differed from those of Bush
WASHINGTON - As he begins his historic visit to the White House and the United Nations this week, Pope Benedict XVI is widely expected to call attention to two areas in which he has been at odds with the Bush administration: The need for urgent action on global warming and the humanitarian cost of unjust wars, according to Catholic leaders and people familiar with Benedict's papacy.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, said in response to a Globe inquiry that in his UN speech on Friday, Benedict "won't necessarily touch upon specific crises in the world: unfortunately, they are too many to be dealt with in a few minutes. However he will insist on the moral imperative that all, without exception, have a grave responsibility to protect the environment."
He did not say whether Iraq would be mentioned.
Despite their disagreements, President Bush has gone out of his way to welcome Benedict, with plans to greet him in person when he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base this afternoon, and then to have a private discussion in the Oval Office for 45 minutes tomorrow morning. It will be only the second visit by a pope to the White House, after Pope John Paul II met with President Carter in 1979.
Bush is also hosting a special dinner in the pontiff's honor tomorrow night, which is coincidentally Benedict's 81st birthday. But organizers yesterday confirmed that the pope will not attend the dinner with other Catholic leaders, and will instead return to the papal nunciature, where he is staying. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is assisting with the pope's visit, said he customarily does not attend such social dinners.
Greg Tobin, a specialist on papal history at Seton Hall University, said he believes the president and the pope maintain a positive relationship based on their common Christianity, but that they do not enjoy the same kind of partnership seen between past presidents and popes.
"I think Bush really wants to have a good relationship with the pope," Tobin said. "I think that President Bush does take the Holy Father's positions very seriously, but I don't think that the pope will have as clear an effect on this administration as previous popes did when they were more in sync with the American government."
During World War II, Pope Pius XII kept a spirited correspondence with President Franklin D. Roosevelt that included a papal plea to avoid civilian deaths during Allied bombings. Later, during the Cold War, Pope John Paul II strongly supported President Ronald Reagan's struggle against the communism in his native Poland and the former Soviet Union.
But in 2003, the Vatican opposed the war in Iraq, saying it did not meet the test of a "just war." Weeks before the invasion, John Paul II sent Cardinal Pio Laghi, a longtime friend of Bush's father, to try to dissuade Bush from toppling Saddam Hussein.
Last summer, when Benedict and Bush met for the first time at the Vatican, the pope told Bush he was concerned about the violence in Iraq, and the plight of Christians living there.
In his televised Easter address last year, Benedict said that "nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter."
And this past February, Benedict told the new US ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, that human progress "is threatened not only by the plague of international terrorism, but also by such threats to peace as the quickening pace of the arms race and the continuance of tensions in the Middle East. "
Church officials and others familiar with Benedict's papacy say they expect the pope to address the subject of humanitarian suffering in Iraq again with Bush during his US visit. They also said that Benedict's recent statements on global warming and the environment lead them to believe that he will highlight the issue during his US visit.
"He looks at the environment as a moral issue, where we look at it as a partisan political issue," said Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and former US ambassador to the Vatican, who knew Benedict before he became Pope and met with him recently in Rome. "He believes the environment was given to us by God and it belongs to everybody, that people in political office have a responsibly as caretakers in that office, they cannot vote it away."
Global warming is another area where US foreign policy and the Vatican have diverged. Throughout most of his administration, Bush has resisted UN efforts to mandate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, although he has recently softened his stance.
But Benedict's belief in environmental stewardship as a religious duty was shared with his predecessor, Flynn said, recalling a passionate conversation on the topic that he witnessed between John Paul II and Vice President Al Gore, who gave the pope a copy of his book on the subject.
Since Benedict became pope in 2005, the Vatican has hosted a scientific conference on climate change, agreed to participate in a program that will plant a forest to offset its own carbon footprint, and fitted buildings in Vatican City with solar panels. Last month, the Vatican issued a statement including pollution among the list of modern sins.
In a New Year's message in January, Benedict warned that time is short to solve the environmental problems facing the globe said that "international agencies may need to be established in order to confront together the stewardship of this home of ours."
The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said Benedict has sought to make a case that world leaders should take stronger action to reduce greenhouse gases.
"He has been convinced by scientists that global warming is a reality," said Reese. "He may become the spiritual leader of the environmental movement."
Walter Grazer, the former director of the Environmental Justice Program at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who now works with an interfaith environmental advocacy effort, said he was surprised by how much attention Benedict has given the issue.
Even if Benedict does not manage to persuade US policy makers that protecting the environment is their religious duty, Grazer said, the pope's beliefs are bound to have an impact on voters, who might begin to see the issue in a new light.
"His words are going to be paid attention to, and will be a focus for people to take this issue seriously in Catholic circles and I would hope broader than the Catholic community," said Grazer. 