The Vatican on Wednesday (Sept. 30) confirmed its refusal to allow U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is visiting the region, to meet with Pope Francis, accusing Pompeo of trying to convince the Vatican to end its ties with China and drag the Catholic Church into U.S. electoral politics.
Earlier, Pompeo told a conference on religious freedom organized by the U.S. Embassy in the Vatican on the same day that no other place on earth has a more serious problem with religious freedom violations than China. He called on the Vatican to join the United States in condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s violations of religious freedom. He said that “a church that is ‘always on mission’ has many meanings,” and that “one of them, of course, is for the church to always defend basic human rights.”
Pompeo also earlier published articles and tweets expressing his displeasure with the Vatican’s upcoming renewal of the agreement with China on the appointment of bishops, saying that the Vatican would “endanger its own moral authority” if it renewed the agreement.
Pompeo’s lack of access to Pope Francis is believed to be related to his recent criticism of the Vatican.
At the same meeting, Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who did not mention China, was asked what the Vatican thought of Pompeo’s recent article. He said that the Holy See was critical of the article. He also said that Pompeo’s visit was close to the U.S. elections, which was one of the reasons why the Pope did not receive the secretary of state.
Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, revealed on Monday that he also failed to meet the Pope in Rome last week to express his views on religious issues in Hong Kong and China.
Chen also said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a strong defender of religious freedom around the world and hoped he would be received by Pope Francis at the Vatican.
According to his itinerary, Pompeo will meet with Gallagher and Apostolic Nuncio Cardinal Pietro Parolin at the Vatican on Thursday.
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