The Pope Rebuffs Condoleezza Rice

September 19, 2007 at 10:33 am | Posted in American politics, condoleezza rice, corruption, Foreign Policy, Iraq | 3 Comments

Man, that’s gotta hurt that poor legacy of hers, but the Pope denied Condoleezza Rice an audience over foreign policy.

The latest request was made during the summer. The US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice indicated to the Vatican that she urgently needed to meet Benedict XVI. She was on her way back into the viper’s nest of the Middle East and it would have been no bad thing to meet her counterparts with the credentials of a papal audience. Ms Rice had hoped that the audience could be fixed for early August at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence, when Benedict XVI returned from Lorenzago in the Dolomites, but she was told the Pope was on holiday. She insisted but to no avail. Vatican diplomats were adamant and “Benedict XVI is on holiday” continued to be the official reply.

Ah, it seems the reason was because Ms. Rice was not too kind to the Vatican way back in 2003 on the war in Iraq.

No one will say so officially but the refusal may also have been prompted by Ms Rice’s stance in 2003, when she was Mr Bush’s national security adviser. On the eve of the Iraqi conflict, it was Ms Rice who said bluntly that she did not understand the Vatican’s anti-war stance. She treated John Paul II’s envoy, Cardinal Pio Laghi, with a coolness that bordered on disrespect when he was sent to Washington on 2 March 2003 on a desperate mission to avert military intervention. Clearly, the incident has not been forgotten.

Payback’s a bitch, Ms. Rice.