The Vatican was committed to
getting countries aligned with the Copenhagen Accord on climate change,
according to the first Vatican cable to appear on the WikiLeaks website.
The confidential cable claimed a Vatican official at the Secretariat of
State would support U.S. government "efforts to have countries associate
themselves with the Copenhagen Accord by the January 31 deadline" as
well as "encourage other countries discreetly to associate themselves
with the Accord as opportunities arise."
The cable, dated Jan. 21, 2010, came from the U.S. Embassy to the
Vatican and was sent to the U.S. government's Bureau of Oceans,
Environment, and Science.
It was one of more than 250,000 alleged diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks
said it would be releasing over the coming months. Sources in Rome said
850 documents concern communications between the U.S. State Department
and the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican.
The cable, titled "'Green' pope supports US path forward from
Copenhagen," was based in part on discussions an embassy official had
with Paolo Conversi, a Vatican official at the Secretariat of State, and
with U.S. Msgr. James Reinert of the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace.
The one-page document made no mention of Pope Benedict XVI's Jan. 11
speech to diplomats in which he was critical of the lack of real
commitment to mitigating climate change.
In a lengthy speech, he told ambassadors that have diplomatic relations
with the Vatican, including U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Miguel Diaz,
that he shared "the growing concern caused by economic and political
resistance to combating the degradation of the environment."
He said the problem was evident during the U.N. summit on climate change
in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. The U.N. Copenhagen
conference ended with an agreement on some objectives but failed to
reach a comprehensive, binding accord on reducing global emissions.
The pope said he hoped that follow-up conferences in 2010 would lead to
effective international policies for protecting the environment because
"the very future of some nations is at stake, particularly some island
states."
The cable simply mentioned that Conversi "was pleased overall with the
process leading to Copenhagen and with the conference itself. He said
expectations were too high before the event," according to the cable.
When contacted by CNS Dec. 9, Conversi said he had not yet read the cable and could offer no comment about its accuracy.
The cable reported that Conversi said the Vatican was "sympathetic" to
complaints of countries such as Venezuela and Cuba about not being
included in the decision-making process, "but believed their criticism
was largely politically motivated."
According to the cable, a U.S. embassy official held a separate meeting
on climate change with Msgr. Reinert, who reportedly confirmed the idea
that "the profile of environmental issues in the Vatican is at an
all-time high."
Such was evidenced by the fact that Vatican officials from the
Secretariat of State were now representing the Vatican at international
environmental meetings whereas in the past lower level officers from the
justice and peace council "would have had the lead," the cable said.
A final comment by the cable's author said "Conversi's offer to support
the U.S., even if discreetly, is significant because the Vatican is
often reluctant to appear to compromise its independence and moral
authority by associating itself with particular lobbying efforts."
"Even more important than the Vatican's lobbying assistance, however, is
the influence the pope's guidance can have on public opinion in
countries with large Catholic majorities and beyond," it said.
In response to a request for comment, an embassy representative, Nancy McNally, issued the following statement to Catholic News Service:
"While I cannot speak to the authenticity of any documents provided to
the press, I can say that the United States strongly condemns the
illegal disclosure of classified information."
SIC: CNS/INT'L