THE VATICAN: The Vatican has been involved in a diplomatic campaign to avoid war in Iraq, writes Paddy Agnew from Rome
About three weeks ago, the US ambassador to the Holy See, Mr James Nicholson, gave lunch for a handful of senior US and Italian journalists, including the correspondents for CNN, Fox News and the Associated Press.
The ambassador was not indulging in routine diplomatic socialising, but rather had summoned the press corps to play down the growing strain in US-Vatican relations prompted by Pope John Paul's outspoken opposition to US-led military intervention in Iraq.
Until recently, the Bush administration, unlike the Clinton one before it, had a surprisingly cosy relationship with the Holy See, agreeing on a range of issues, including abortion funding and stem cell research.
The Iraqi crisis, however, has changed the map.
For months now, the Vatican has been involved in a sustained diplomatic onslaught aimed at avoiding war in Iraq. That diplomatic initiative may well come to a crucial point this morning when the Pope receives the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, for a private audience in the Vatican.
Today's audience represents part of a two-pronged attempt at dialogue with President Saddam Hussein, since the Pope's personal envoy, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, is currently in Baghdad on a "peace mission". He has a letter for the Iraqi leader.
Both today's audience and Cardinal Etchegaray's presence in Baghdad this week underline the less visible aspect of the Vatican's opposition to war, namely the pressure it has brought to bear on the Iraqi dictator to "reflect seriously on the need for effective international co-operation in order to assure the supreme gift of peace for the Iraqi people (as stated by senior Vatican spokesman Dr Joaquin Navarro-Vals earlier this week)".
Until now, international public opinion has been much more aware of the Vatican's virulent opposition to US policy than of its contacts with Baghdad.
While attempts to set up dialogue with President Saddam Hussein have been played out behind the scenes, there has been no such pussyfooting when it came to denouncing US policy on Iraq.
As always, the Pope himself has led the way. In a series of homilies over the last two months, he has voiced his opposition to war, never more forcefully than when addressing the Vatican Diplomatic Corps last month.
"No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity. International law, honest dialogue, solidarity between states, the noble exercise of diplomacy: these are methods worthy of individuals and nations in resolving their differences," said the Pope.
While that language might have been couched in diplomatic nuance, some of the Pope's senior advisers have been more blunt. Talking to reporters last month, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, asked if the Americans had learned nothing from the lesson of Vietnam, adding: "From the outside, we can appear idealists, and we are, but we are also realists. Is it really a good idea to irritate a billion Muslims?"
Lest the US administration had not got the point, the Vatican-approved Jesuit publication Civlità Cattlica last month argued that oil was the real motive for the conflict.
The Vatican can present itself as, if not a friend, then certainly no enemy of Iraq. The Pope will doubtless recall to Mr Aziz this morning how he opposed the Gulf war in 1991. Cardinal Etchegaray may recall to President Saddam his 1985 visit to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.