Papal candidate calls for Vatican ‘re-thinking’ for Christian unity

ROME, Nov 15: Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, seen as a possible successor to Pope John Paul, stepped into the spotlight again yesterday by calling for a "re-thinking" of the role of the papacy in order to achieve Christian unity.

Cardinal Martini, who is Archbishop of Milan, is the favourite of liberal catholics to succeed the ailing 79-year-old Pope, a conservative now in the 21st year of his papacy.

While he has not openly clashed with the Pope on key issues, Cardinal Martini has expressed more openness to debate on controversial topics such as sexual morality and the role of women.

"The balance sheet of ecumenism is on the whole positive," Cardinal Martini, 72, said in an interview with Italian radio after visiting the holy land.

"But the Catholic church still has to take some fundamental steps. The way of exercising the primacy of Rome is one of them. There is a need to re-think this."

Advance excerpts of the interview were sent to Italian news agencies on Saturday night and Cardinal Martini’s comments were splashed in big headlines in Italian newspapers.

Although Cardinal Martini was repeating the theme of one of the Pope’s encyclicals, the big coverage the Italian media gave to his comments was indicative of the attention he receives.

The media often refer to cardinal Martini as a "Pope in waiting".

The Jesuit Biblical scholar is seen as the leading liberal candidate to succeed the Pope. He is also the hope of some Italians who want the papacy back. Pope John Paul, a pole who was elected in 1978, is the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years.

In a 1995 encyclical, the Pope, taking an initiative with potentially historic consequences, said he was willing to seek an accommodation with other Christian denominations on the papacy’s future role for the sake of eventual Christian unity. The encyclical was dedicated to the search for unity among Christian churches that split from each other at various times over the past 1,000 years.

Papal primacy - recognition of the Pope’s supreme authority over any unified Christian Church — has been one of the most thorny issues facing theologians in decades of dialogue between Rome, other Western churches, and Eastern orthodoxy.

Neither the Pope nor cardinalmartini have spelled out their vision of how the role of the papacy would be changed in the future for the sake of Christian unity.

Still, Cardinal Martini’s comments won him big space in newspapers - more so than the Pope’s similar comments four years ago. It was the second time Cardinal Martini had called for change in less than a month.

At the synod of European bishops in October, Cardinal Martini said the church needed more shared policy-making and collegial solutions to the problems to sexual morality, the shortage of priests and other issues facing the church.

Although he is only seven years younger than the Pope, Cardinal Martini was dubbed "L’enfant terrible" by Rome’s LA Repubblica newspaper. Cardinal Martini says he wants to keep difficult questions on the agenda while some churchmen want to keep them under the carpet.

"The church is searching for a new type of papacy," the newspaper headlined in an editorial mostly about Cardinal Martini.

But others warned that the spate of publicity that cardinal Martini gets every time he speaks out may only hurt his chances of being elected in a secret conclave of cardinals after the pope dies.

Another newspaper, Il Giornale, recalled a famous expression about the perils of trying to predict a future pope. It goes: "He who enters a conclave as a Pope leaves it as a Cardinal". (REUTERS)

Afghani soil not to be used against any country: Taliban

ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: With the United Nations’ sanctions against the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan now in place, the organisation says it was ready to assure the United States that it would not allow anybody, including Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, to use Afghani soil to wage war against any country.

In an interview to the Urdu service of BBC from Gandhar last night, Taliban spokesman Syed Aqa stuck to his Government’s stand that Bin Laden would not be asked to leave Afghanistan or handed over to any country to be tried for his alleged role in the bombing of American embassies in East Africa in August last year killing more than 200 people.

But, he said, the Taliban was willing to hold talks with the United States. Asked what they wanted to talk, Syed Aqa said the Taliban would assure the United States that neither Bin Laden nor any other person would be allowed to use Afghani soil to wage war against a third country.

After the sanctions, no foreign flights can go to Afghanistan and all assets of the country would be frozen worldwide. The Taliban spokesman said these sanctions would add to the suffering of the Afghan people.

According to a BBC correspondent in Peshawar, yesterday’s agitation in Kabul against the United Nations and the United States could have been supported by the Taliban regime because they took place despite a ban on protests and processions.

In Pakistan too, despite such a ban, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam held separate public meetings yesterday in the North West Frontier Province to condemn the sanctions. (UNI)

LTTE rejected 3 offers for talks: Chandrika

COLOMBO, Nov 15: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga said LTTE leader V Prabhakaran had rejected her three offers to open a dialogue to end the ethnic war in the island, newspaper reports said today.

Answering question from a large group of Colombo-based Tamils during a satellite link-up conference during the weekend, Kumaratunga said Government has approached Prabhakaran thrice during the past three years for the commencement of talks.

Up to the last three weeks, there was no positive response from Prabhakaran...This terrible war must end. We believe in a negotiated political settlement, she was quoted as saying in the state-run ‘Daily News’ today.

The offers were made through respected and acceptable international organisations, she said.

The President said Prabhakaran was pretending to the world that he is keeping the door open for negotiations but that was a deception.

Prabhakaran had told her contacts that he was not interested in talks, she said and blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader for breaking the six month long peace talks in 1994 even after she conceded 90 per cent of his demands to create a conducive atmosphere for talks.

Instead of pursuing talks, Prabhakaran has utilised the time to rebuild his forces to begin the war all over again, she lamented.

But significantly Kumaratunga stressed on the consensus between the principle opposition United National Party (UNP), and the LTTE to block her efforts to end the war and restore peace in the country.

Aware of the feedback that significant chunks of minority Tamil voters who voted for her in 1994 elections moved away from her ruling peoples alliance coalition, Kumaratunga utilised her satellite connected interactive sessions for the past two weeks with Tamil residents in Northern Jaffna as well as Colombo to stress her Government’s resolve to find a political solution to the ethnic problem.

She said that while Prabhakaran studiously avoided talks UNP leader Ranil Wickrramasinghe, who is her principle challenger in the December 21 Presidential polls, stalled her package proposals to grant of autonomy to provinces, which included Tamil dominated North and East.

Her proposals stuck in Parliament for want of two thirds majority, which the UNP refused to provide, Kumaratunga said adding she could not fulfil her promise to restore the peace because both UNP and ltte refused to co-operate. (PTI)

C’wealth endorses India’s view on international trade

DURBAN, Nov 15: In a major diplomatic victory for developing countries, the 54-nation Commonwealth endorsed India’s view and opposed the US and EU move to link social and environmental clause to trade saying it would impede free trade and would be an injustice to the third world.

We fully believe in the importance of upholding labour standards and protecting the environment. But these must be addressed in an appropriate way that does not, by linking them to trade liberalisation, end up effectively impeding free trade and causing injustice to developing countries, said the fancourt commonwealth declaration, adopted by the four-day summit concluding today.

The declaration on globalisation and people-centred development assumes importance in the wake of adamant posture of United States and Europe to raise these contentious issues at the WTO ministerial meeting at Seattle to kick up a showdown between industrialised and developing nations.

India articulating the developing countries’ viewpoint had maintained that it was not against labour standards and environmental protection but opposed tooth and nail the attempts to ‘abuse’ them for trade purposes to deny market access to third world.

The declaration wanted the 134-nation wto meeting to aim at achieving better market access in agriculture, industrial products and services in a way that provides benefits to all members particularly developing countries.

Seattle meeting beginning on November 30 is likely to set the agenda for new round of negotiations which the declaration said should be balanced in process, content and outcome.

Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku told newsmen that the declaration had been adopted after two-days of very productive and intense session and sought to balance the views of economically and socially disperate member states.

The declaration said the Commonwealth’s ‘greatest challenge’ was how to channelise the forces of globalisation for the elimination of poverty and the empowerment of human beings to lead fulfiling lives.

It said strong exports growth remained a key element in the ability of developing countries to improve their living standards to the levels enjoyed in the industrialised world.

We support efforts that would enable developing countries to build up their skills and manufacturing capacities, including production and export of value-added goods, so as to enhance growth and achieve prosperity.

It also asked global community to establish innovative mechanism to promote capital flows to a large number of countries and to urgently initiate reform of international financial architecture to minimise financial instability and its impact on the poor.

India spearheaded the move to arrive at an international consensus at the annual fund-bank meeting in Washington in September this year for a new international financial architecture to deal with economic crisis inflicted on several countries due to situations like East Asian currency meltdown.

Underlining the need for eliminating poverty, the declaration said this scourge could be tackled only If we take determined and concerted action at national and international levels.

We reiterate our commitment to work for a reversal of the decline in official development assistance flows, it said adding urgent action is required to tackle the unsustainable debt burden of developing countries by building on the recent initiatives agreed internationally.

We believe such development assistance must be focussed on human development, poverty reduction and on the development of capacities for participating in expanding world markets for goods and capital, it said.

The four-page declaration also makes special mention of Commonwealth’s concern at the vast gap between rich and poor in ability to access new technologies.

Criticising growing tendencies among the developed world to claim proprietary rights on traditional knowledge and at bio-piracy, the declaration called the world community to use the opportunities offered by globalisation to adopt practical methods to overcome these challenges.

It cited the example of extending the benefits of global medical research through the provision of drugs at affordable prices to the poor in developing countries.

Asking all nations to fully implement the Uruguay round commitments to dismantle barriers to trade, the declaration said enhanced export opportunities would help significantly in reducing poverty.

We call for improved market access for the exports of all countries particularly developing countries and the removal of all barriers to the exports of the least developed countries.

There were no doubt positive sides to globalisation and the ensuing revolution in communication technologies as it had created unprecedented opportunities for weatlh creation but the benefits were not shared equitably, it said.

Many millions still live in conditions of extreme deprivation. The poor are being marginalised. Expanded capital flows have also brought them the risk of greater financial instability, undermining the hope that a commitment to open markets can lift the developing world out of poverty and debt, it said.

Solution, however, did not lay in abandoning a commitment to market principles or wising away the powerful forces of technological change, it said adding we recognise the responsibilities of national Governments to promote pro-poor policies and human development. (PTI)

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