Pope Demands Nuclear Test Ban

In a stern speech to the international community, Pope John Paul II on Saturday called for a global ban “without delay” on the proliferation and testing of all nuclear weapons.

In a French-language “state of the world” speech to diplomats from 161 countries, the pope also appealed for resolution of the status of Jerusalem, asked Muslim states to allow greater religious freedom and warned a number of African leaders to clean up their acts.

The pointed call on nuclear arms was a clear message to France, which has drawn widespread criticism for testing weapons in the South Pacific. The pope’s strong reiteration of Holy See policy came just a week before a scheduled visit by Jacques Chirac, the first to the Vatican by a French president since 1959.

Speaking from his throne in the baroque Sala Regia in the Apostolic Palace, John Paul pledged Vatican support for completion this year of Geneva talks for a treaty banning nuclear tests.

“The banning of tests and of the further development of these weapons, disarmament and nonproliferation are closely linked,” the pope said. “These are steps toward a general and total disarmament which the international community as a whole should accomplish without delay.”

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In his trademark white robe, the 75-year-old looked fit, his strong voice echoing across the marbled hall, as he delivered “a reflection of the human soul.” There seemed no apparent aftereffects of a flu that dogged him on Christmas Day.

A record number of listeners heard the Vatican equivalent of America’s presidential State of the Union address on Saturday.

New accords in 1995 raised the number of countries with diplomats at the Holy See to 161. This included three newcomers from Africa: Eritrea, Namibia and Mozambique; one from Europe: Andorra; and one from Oceania: Kiribati. Israeli and PLO ambassadors were also present.

“May God assist the Israelis and Palestinians to live from now on side by side with one another in peace. . . . Future generations demand this,” John Paul said, warning that hopes for regional peace could prove ephemeral without resolution of the future of Jerusalem.

Palestinians want the eastern sector of the city--captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War--as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel insists that the entire, undivided city will be its capital forever.

The Vatican has long called for international guarantees to protect Jerusalem’s status as a city sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians.

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In his global recitation, the pope applauded the prospect of peace talks in Northern Ireland, appealing for an end to “sectarian extremism and political violence” between Catholic and Protestant communities.

He said the halt in fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina is encouraging but cautioned that enduring peace is possible only if the international community and local inhabitants guarantee “the free flow of people and ideas, the unhindered return of refugees to their homes; the preparation of truly democratic elections and, finally, sustained material and moral reconstruction.”

Despite encouraging democratic evolution in places such as Latin America, the pope said, the world remains plagued by many conflicts that “keep people under the unbearable yoke of violence, hatred, uncertainty and death.”

He lamented continuing trauma in troubled lands as disparate as Algeria, Cyprus, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sri Lanka and East Timor.

Developments in Africa, a continent of particular affection for John Paul, are not encouraging to the pope. He said he felt “compelled to deplore the continuing presence of hotbeds of war and ethnic conflicts which constitute a permanent handicap for the continent’s development.” Continuing violence in Liberia, Somalia, Sierra Leone and southern Sudan, and instability in Angola, Rwanda and Burundi, drew papal disapproval.

He was particularly blunt with Africa’s leaders: “If you do not commit yourselves more resolutely to national democratic dialogue, if you do not more clearly respect human rights, if you do not strictly administer public funds and external credits, if you do not condemn ethnic ideology, the African continent will ever remain on the margin of the community of nations.”

Among the most basic human rights, John Paul said, is “freedom of conscience and of religion.” He scored China and Vietnam for placing obstacles in the way of Catholics, and he criticized Muslim countries that “practice discrimination against Jews, Christians and other religious groups.”