Assad: Russia action in Syria vital to save Middle East
![Assad tells Khabar Iranian TV that the chances of success for his coalition with Russia "are great and not insignificant" [Reuters]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tFyMG9oHd78AWi9kd6vwAL5_6DynUo5jY9N633M8bGkNZ14Vp2j9zm4_CMdYR8Og6axVXr25A7l_hq0sHpTiK9sBqAEpoPpD36gmjrkpleLN0G22i7t4KeZ1WD77wV945QMzcIQiLNMlaeG1Cbh64FId7r_140yrv-ddqcvtXD9bWaRPfta5qgajvIm3-qYutreWhoi50wNJU=s0-d "Assad: Russia action in Syria vital to save Middle East")
Defiant Syrian leaders tells Iranian TV that US-lead coalition against ISIL has failed, as Moscow ramps up bombings.
Before Clerk, a Papal Hug for a Gay Friend
Shortly after the election of Pope Francis,
Carlo Maria Viganò, the papal nuncio to the United States, spoke
effusively about his official reception by the pontiff in the library of
the Apostolic Palace in Rome.
“That
is a man you may talk to with an open heart,” Archbishop Viganò said in
an interview at the time, calling his audience, “extremely nice,
extremely warm.”
Archbishop Viganò could be in for a chillier reception the next time he returns to the Vatican.
The
archbishop, who was exiled to the United States in 2011 after losing a
high-altitude Vatican power struggle that became public in an infamous leaks scandal,
now finds himself at the center of another papal controversy. This
time, the Vatican is suggesting that Archbishop Viganò is responsible
for giving papal face time to Kim Davis,
the Kentucky clerk whose refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex
couples has made her a heroine to social conservatives.
The encounter struck a dissonant note in a papal visit that seemed designed to avoid the battlefields of the culture wars. News of the meeting has proved to be manna for conservatives frustrated by Francis’ de-emphasis of social issues and hungry for more of a papal focus on religious liberty and doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage.
Archbishop
Viganò, an amiable 74-year-old northern Italian with an appreciation
for good red wine, declined to comment, though people close to him
rejected the notion that the Vatican was blaming him.
But
the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said on Friday that the
office of Archbishop Viganò had extended the invitation to Ms. Davis and
that the pope was probably not briefed about her case. And the Rev.
Federico Lombardi, the chief Vatican spokesman, depicted the meeting as
one meet-and-greet among many.
A
lawyer for Ms. Davis, Mathew D. Staver, said in an interview that the
Vatican’s version of events was “absolute nonsense” and that “somebody
is trying to throw some people under the bus.”
The wronged party, several church observers and Mr. Staver suggested, was Archbishop Viganò.
Mr.
Staver said his client’s meeting with the pope was indeed private and
that “if there was a line or other people, they would not have been able
to keep this quiet as long as they have.” He then detailed the
choreography involved in setting up the meeting.
He
said Archbishop Viganò personally contacted Ms. Davis late in the day
on Sept. 14 suggesting a private meeting with Pope Francis on Sept. 24.
On the eve of the meeting, he said Ms. Davis received a voice mail
message on her cellphone confirming the meeting and instructing her to
keep her noticeably long hair up.
“I
told her this morning, ‘Do not delete those,’” said Mr. Staver. He
said, “we were led to believe that the invitation did come directly from
Pope Francis.”
Mr.
Staver said a conservative deacon, Keith Fournier, introduced him to
Archbishop Viganò back in April before speaking at a National
Organization for Marriage rally on the Washington Mall in opposition to
same-sex marriage. As Mr. Staver descended from the stage, Archbishop
Viganò made a point to “thank me for my message,” the lawyer said.
Archbishop
Viganò, a cultural conservative born into a wealthy family in Varese,
received the title of archbishop from John Paul II in 1992. He later
joined the church’s diplomatic corps, which is one of the traditional
sources of power in the Vatican, and in 2009 was installed by Pope
Benedict XVI as secretary of the governorate of Vatican City State, a
position not unlike the mayor of Vatican City.
Benedict
wanted the ambitious Italian to enact government reforms, but
Archbishop Viganò’s efforts in that goal earned him powerful enemies. In
early 2011, hostile anonymous articles attacking Archbishop Viganò
began appearing in the Italian news media, the bulletin board of Vatican
power politics. Archbishop Viganò appealed to Benedict’s second in
command, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, who instead echoed the
articles’ complaints about his rough management style and removed
Archbishop Viganò from his post.
Those appeals and protests, later leaked by the pope’s butler, became the heart of the church scandal known as VatiLeaks, which many church observers say contributed to the resignation of Benedict XVI.
In
one missive copied to the pope, Archbishop Viganò wrote to Cardinal
Bertone accusing him of getting in the way of the pope’s reform mission,
but also of failing to make good on a promise to elevate him to
cardinal. When faced with a transfer to the United States, he protested
that the move would give heart to those opposed to his efforts to “clean
up” the “corruption and abuse of power” in the Vatican.
On
July 7, 2011, he wrote to Benedict that on issues of malfeasance inside
the Vatican, “the Holy Father has certainly been kept in the dark.”
The
question now is did Archbishop Viganò, left to linger in the United
States as a new administration has taken power in Rome, keep Pope
Francis in the dark or simply underestimate the off-message media storm
that a meeting with Ms. Davis would provoke. Or, after executing orders
from Rome, has he once again found himself being hung out to dry at the
end of his career. In January, Archbishop Viganò will turn 75, the age
at which bishops must submit a formal request to the Vatican for
permission to resign. These requests are not automatically accepted, and
bishops often stay in their appointments long after. It seems unlikely,
church analysts say, that Archbishop Viganò will be one of them.
“Life is always in progress,” Archbishop Viganò said in the 2013 interview about the shifting power structure
under Francis. He added that the church would emphasize the dimension
of charity, “of pardon, of mercy. As Pope Francis has said, this is his
own style.”
