The Pope, on whose agony and death George W. Bush is shedding
crocodile tears, did not relent even after the war had started.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16636.shtml

Pope John Paul II's Resistance to the "Unjust War" on Iraq

By Pasquale Maria Aliberti

Apr 4, 2005, 20:41


After 26 dramatic years of pontificate, His Holiness John Paul II died
today.

His last years were characterized by a courageous and principled
opposition -- on religious, moral, and political grounds -- to the US
led war on Iraq and its ideological foundations.

The latter consisted in justifying the "war on terrorism", as a
legitimate response to the so-called "Clash of Civilizations", between
the West predominantly Christian on the one hand the Muslim world on
the other hand.

Following his death, we now see many world leaders -- starting with
George W. Bush -- who maliciously attempted to thwart Pope John Paul's
antiwar stance, pouring gallons of crocodile tears over the TV
cameras.

However, this media propaganda cannot overshadow the fact that John
Paul II’s last big battle was against the Bush administration's
"preemptive war" doctrine.

The Pontiff and his closest collaborators resisted an unprecedented
assault by the men of the would be new roman emperor on the Potomac
and told directly Bush and his minions that their war was an "unjust
war."

Needless to say, Pope John Paul II's rejection of America's military
agenda contributed immensely to weakening the Pentagon's propaganda
campaign.

The issue of his succession in the Vatican is, therefore, a matter of
paramount importance for Catholics and non-Catholics.

Will John Paul's principled stance prevail or will his successor
succumb to the political pressures of the Bush administration?

What will be criteria for selecting his successor?

Will the new Pope be chosen as a result of US pressures?

Or will the successor of John Paul II follow and broaden his moral
strategy of defending humanity from the imperial predators?

Will the successor accept the proposal to become the "chaplain of the
new world order" that, reportedly, Bush senior made unsuccessfully to
the Pope during the first Gulf war?

Or will he draw -- from the root of Christianity and the experience of
the Church -- the language and the strategy to evoke the resistance of
the quasi totality of the peoples of the world to the new US led
empire?

Will he be an instrumentum regni or an instrumentum Christi?

The world has entered now into a critical and momentous period filled
with existential dangers of apocalyptic proportions; but, at the same
time, we have the possibility to create a concrete alternative to this
descent into the Inferno.

In this context, and as a contribution to clarifying what is at stake,
we bring to the attention of Global Research readers, a private
memorandum written in April 2003, by someone apparently familiar with
the "geo-religious" situation in the Vatican, at the time of the war
against Iraq.

The memorandum was written originally in Italian and was made
available for private circulation among political and religious
leaders including high ranking members of the clergy inside the
Vatican .

The memorandum was specifically addressed to the leadership of the
Vatican , which was under tremendous pressure from Washington .

The Bush administration's goal was to enlist Pope Paul II and the
Vatican Curia, as key supporters of the US-led "crusade."

The Vatican leadership refused to accept the role Washington wanted it
to play in the intended religious war.

The Pope not only rejected the war but did everything possible to
prevent it.

The Pope had stated that the war on Iraq would be a defeat for
humanity.

He sent one of the most important prelates of the Vatican, Cardinal
Pio Laghi ( former Pro Nuncio in Washington and a friend of the Bush
family) on a special mission to President Bush carrying a letter
signed by the Pope, stating that this was a truly "unjust war".

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The Pope was trying to communicate with a petulant child, so..........

Harry