Vatican: Rice says Holy Land, religious freedom on U.S. agenda

Published: 2005-02-09

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured top Vatican officials that the Holy See's concerns over the Holy Land and religious freedom in the Middle East and China would be on the U.S. agenda. Rice, on her first visit to the Vatican as newly appointed secretary of state, was to have met with Pope John Paul II, but his hospitalization kept him away. She made the visit as part of her seven-day tour of Europe and Israel. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, and the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, and other Vatican officials welcomed Rice and her entourage Feb. 8 in the Vatican for "an exchange of opinions," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a written statement released a few hours after the meeting. The 45-minute encounter was "cordial," the Vatican text said. Rice, who had just come from a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank, told Vatican officials that she had some good news concerning the Holy Land. She said that for the first time, Israeli and Palestinian leaders were saying the same things and that the two sides wanted to make the most of the new opportunities opened to them, a senior U.S. official in Rome told Catholic News Service. Rice's Feb. 8 comments came just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally announced a cease-fire aimed at ending four years of violence. Rice assured Cardinal Sodano that she would be personally engaged in following the Middle East peace process.

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