Ex-U.S. security adviser says U.S., Vatican united by human rights

Published: 2003-10-17

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A former U.S. official said the United States and Vatican were united by a "preoccupation with human rights," not by a plot to undermine communism. "It wasn't only the Soviet press that wrote about plots, but the Western press too -- and it was all garbage," said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who headed the National Security Council under U.S. President Jimmy Carter. "There was no cooperation in the sense of coordinated joint activities. But we all knew very well that the church in the East was acting both openly and covertly -- this was no secret," he said. Brzezinski told Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza daily that he believed the pope had spurred the collapse of communist rule by strengthening "feelings of independence and solidarity" among Soviet-bloc populations. He said that after Pope John Paul II's 1978 election the Carter administration quickly realized that he would be "an ally in its squabble with the Soviet Union."

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