Cardinal pessimistic Powell meeting will speed Middle East peace

Published: 2004-06-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick expressed pessimism that a meeting of U.S. Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders with Secretary of State Colin Powell would get the Bush administration to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "I'm not sure we were that persuasive," the cardinal told Catholic News Service after the June 1 meeting at the State Department. Powell told the delegation that the United States was looking for an end to the terrorism tied to the conflict before once again actively engaging in the peace process, said Cardinal McCarrick. "But if we wait for that, we're giving terrorists control of the timetable," said the cardinal. "The United States has to do more and do it now," he said. Cardinal McCarrick was part of a 20-member interreligious delegation that met with Powell to present a joint plan for immediate "fair and firm" U.S. initiatives to get peace talks restarted. The meeting was organized by the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative formed last year by Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders.

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