Pope Meets Senior Soviet Envoy for Talks on Religion, Mideast
Pope John Paul II met a senior Soviet envoy this week for talks on religious freedom and the Middle East, the Vatican said.
The talks with Yuri Karlov, a personal representative of Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, follow reports that the Vatican is studying a possible papal visit to Lebanon.
The Polish-born pontiff is also widely expected to have an unprecedented meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev if Gorbachev goes ahead with a visit to Italy in November.
“Mr. Karlov discussed matters of common interest with the Holy Father, such as religious freedom and peace in the world, with particular reference to the Middle East,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
Vatican and diplomatic sources say the Vatican has been studying the feasibility of a lightning trip by John Paul to Lebanon. On Aug. 15, the Pope said he felt an “interior command” to go there because of the upsurge in violence.
He has directly accused Syria of seeking the destruction of the country and appealed for an immediate end to fighting.
Vatican-Soviet relations have warmed gradually since June, 1988, when a top-level Catholic delegation visited the Soviet Union for celebrations to mark 1,000 years of Russian Christianity.
But a major problem remains the Soviet Union’s continued ban on the underground Ukrainian Catholic Church, which Moscow does not recognize.
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