NADP News September 06, 2010

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul said on Sunday the world had to be spared the ``wicked plague of terrorism'' and that the search for lasting peace could not be divorced from the application of justice.

The Pope's words at his Sunday noon address appeared to be an attempt to walk the fine line of Church teaching between non-violence and self-defense in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

While the Roman Catholic Church teaches that non-violence and the search for peace are high values, it also supports the principle of self-defense to save lives.

In using some of his strongest words to date against the attacks, the Pope asked Roman Catholics to pray the rosary during the month of October ``for peace, so that the world may be spared from the wicked plague of terrorism.''

``The terrible tragedy of last September 11 will be remembered as a dark day in the history of humanity,'' he told pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Speaking in Italian, he said the Church wanted to call on all people to ``remember their duty to build a future of peace for the human family.''

``Certainly, peace is not divorced from justice but it must always be fed by clemency and love,'' he added.

He called for the banning of violence and asked for Christians, Muslims and Jews to pray so that ``hate and death never have the last word.''

STRONG WORDS AGAINST TERROR

The Pope's words linking peace and justice appeared to hint that the Vatican, while it preferred a non-violent solution to the crisis, would understand if the United States had to resort to force to protect its citizens from future threats if no other option were available.

This policy was explained by the Vatican's chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls in an interview with Reuters during the Pope's trip to Kazakhstan last week.

In the interview, Navarro-Valls, one of the Pope's closest aides and advisers, said: ``The Pope understands the difficulties of a political leader who has to respond to such issues.''

President Bush has demanded that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government hand over militant Osama bin Laden, whom it holds directly responsible for the attacks in New York and Washington.

The spokesman added: ``It is certain that if someone has done great harm to society and there is a danger that if he remains free he may be able to do it again, you have the right to apply self-defense for the society which you lead, even though the means you may choose may be aggressive.''

Christian ethics demand proportional response to a given threat when the principle of self-defense is involved and that innocent people should not be harmed.

Navarro-Valls said it was wrong to consider the Pope either a pacifist or an interventionist at all costs.

During his trip to Kazakhstan, the Pope said terrorism profaned God and disfigured man and stressed that the Catholic Church had great respect for ``authentic Islam.''

(Rome newsroom, +39 06 854 0049, fax +39 06 854 0568, rome.newsroom+reuters.com))

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