NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II today met with Iraqi vice-premier Tarek Aziz, who is traveling through Europe seeking support for his plea to end the international embargo on his country.

      After meeting with the Holy Father, Aziz also huddled with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and the Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran.

      After the visit by the Iraqi official, the Holy See repeated its call for an end to the embargo. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls spoke of the "negative consequences" of the embargo, and the toll it has taken on the poor of Iraq.

      During the special Synod of Bishops for Asia, which concluded at the Vatican last week, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael I of Baghdad asked that the final statement of the bishops' synod incorporate an explicit call for an end to the embargo. That request won approval from the assembled bishops, and the statement was included.