Pope names French cardinal, ex-foreign minister, to Vatican library

Published: 2003-11-24

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II has placed French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran in charge of the Vatican Library, naming him archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church. The 60-year-old cardinal, who had served as the Vatican's foreign minister for the past 13 years, replaces Argentine Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, 80, who had been in charge of the library since 1998. The appointment was announced Nov. 24 at the Vatican. At a Nov. 20 farewell reception with diplomats, Cardinal Tauran said the 1991 Gulf War, the war in the Balkans following the breakup of Yugoslavia, wars in central Africa, "the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian problems," terrorism and the 2003 war in Iraq "have weakened our world." The tensions, he told the diplomats, have pushed Pope John Paul to make strong pronouncements, not in an attempt to get involved in politics, "but to show men and women the correct path, to revive their consciences, to highlight rights and the commitments made to them, and to repeat with new words the Gospel beatitude: 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'"

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