Vatican official accuses Trump administration of exploiting pope | Pope Francis

A high Vatican official has accused Donald Trump’s administration of exploiting Pope Francis within the ultimate levels of the US presidential elections marketing campaign.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, spoke at a convention on non secular freedom on Wednesday organised by the US embassy to the Holy See throughout his go to to Italy.

When the Italian information company Ansa requested Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, if the US unilaterally organising the occasion amounted to exploitation of the pope within the run-up to the elections, he replied: “Sure, that’s exactly why the pope is not going to meet American secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

Pope Francis reportedly declined to satisfy Pompeo during his visit this week, citing the closeness of the US election. However the transfer was additionally more likely to be linked to Pompeo’s current assaults on the Vatican’s perceived soft-pedalling on China’s human rights file as the 2 sides put together to increase a historic agreement signed two years ago.

The main points of the deal have by no means been made public, nevertheless it gave the Vatican a say within the appointment of Catholic bishops in China. Pope Francis additionally recognised eight bishops that had been appointed by Beijing with out his approval.

China was additionally a theme throughout Pompeo’s assembly with the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, in Rome on Wednesday. Pompeo mentioned he requested Conte to “take into account community safety rigorously”.

Throughout a press convention with Italy’s international minister, Luigi Di Maio, Pompeo mentioned he was involved about China’s plans to increase its affect on Italy’s economic system.

“The international minister and I had a protracted dialog about the USA’ issues on the Chinese language Communist occasion making an attempt to leverage its financial presence in Italy to serve its personal strategic functions,” Pompeo mentioned, including that “the Chinese language are usually not right here for honest partnerships with reciprocal advantages”.

He additionally urged the Italian authorities to think about the dangers to the privateness of its residents offered by expertise firms with hyperlinks to the Chinese language Communist occasion.

In March 2019, Italy grew to become the primary G7 nation to endorse a contentious plan by China to construct a Silk Street-style international commerce community, irking its EU and US allies.

The Chinese language president, Xi Jinping, was given a state go to, throughout which the 2 international locations signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would result in Italy’s participation in China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI), an bold undertaking that envisages Chinese language funding in a community of infrastructure initiatives connecting Asia, the Center East, Africa and Europe. A number of different business offers in a wide range of areas, together with tourism, meals and soccer, have been additionally signed.