State Mike Pompeo speaks during a briefing at the State Department
on February 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Secretary Pompeo spoke on
several topics including the coronavirus and the recent truce with
the Taliban. Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Rome
Wednesday, just a month ahead of the US elections and hot on the
heels of a diplomatic breach with the Vatican, that experts see as
an effort to win conservative Catholic votes.
Pompeo will not meet Pope Francis because the pontiff avoids
such audiences in campaign periods, a Vatican source said.
Analysts say the pope has also been angered by Pompeo’s public
calls for a historic Vatican-China accord to be scrapped.
Instead, Pompeo will speak at a symposium organised by the Holy
See’s US embassy in the Italian capital on Wednesday, before
meeting the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on
Thursday.
Francis has been working hard to repair ties with China, but his
overtures run contrary to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to
push a religious freedom theme against the Communist country in his
campaign for a second term.
Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, went on the offensive earlier
this month, calling a Sino-Vatican 2018 agreement on appointing
bishops, which is up for renewal, a risk to the church’s “moral
authority” given Beijing’s human rights record.
Powerful cardinal Oscar Maradiaga said the US intervention was
unwelcome, and clearly linked to the election campaign.
“They’re looking for Donald Trump to get elected, and everything
is based on that logic. In this sense, I don’t think they’re acting
in the interests of Americans,” he said in an interview with the
Repubblica daily on the eve of Pompeo’s visit.
Francis’s opening towards China had particularly angered the
“anti-Francis” network close to the US president, he said, led by
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican’s former envoy to the
US, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s former advisor.
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Massimo Faggioli, a theologian at the Villanova Catholic
University in the US, said there was a concerted effort under way
to “turn a certain anti-Francis and anti-Vatican sentiment, which
has become more visible in recent years, into votes for Trump”.
“Vatican diplomacy is being used for propaganda,” he said.
According to the Pew Research Centre, around half of Catholic
registered voters describe themselves as Republicans or lean toward
the Republican Party, while roughly the same identify with or lean
toward the Democratic Party.
A “notable majority of white Catholics” voted for Trump last
time, Faggioli said, and “the plan is to keep this bloc of white
Catholic voters in some states where it is especially needed”.
Pompeo is also set Wednesday to meet Italy’s Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio to discuss US
efforts to deter European allies from using equipment by Chinese
manufacturer Huawei in developing their 5G networks.
The US accuses Huawei of being a tool for Chinese espionage.
Italy insists its Golden Power law — which allows the government
to impose conditions, restrictions or a ban on foreign investment
in strategic industries — protects it from risk.
Nonetheless, Conte promised last week to take stronger measures
to ensure national security in the country’s 5G networks.
Talks will likely also touch on Italy’s involvement in China’s
ambitious “Belt and Road” trade and infrastructure investment
plan.
Rome became the first G7 country to sign up to the plan last
year, a move sharply criticised by those who fear the investment
scheme will allow key trade secrets and technologies to slip into
Beijing’s hands.
AFP
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/09/30/pompeo-in-tense-visit-to-vatican-as-us-vote-nears/