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Pope won’t meet Dalai Lama… trying to avoid upsetting China

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pope francisPope Francis will not meet the Dalai Lama when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visits Rome this weekend, a Vatican spokesman said today — a decision apparently seeking to avoid upsetting China.

The Dalai Lama arrives in the Italian capital tomorrow for three days to attend a meeting with other Nobel peace laureates. The event was moved to Italy from South Africa after the Pretoria government, anxious to foster economic ties with Beijing, declined to issue a visa for the 79-year-old Buddhist leader.

Sources said the Vatican decision to sidestep an opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama reflects concern over what would inevitably be a furious Chinese reaction, and a desire not to jeopardise efforts to build bridges with Beijing or risk retaliation against the country’s small Catholic community.

“Pope Francis obviously holds the Dalai Lama in very high regard but he will not be meeting any of the Nobel laureates,” the Vatican spokesman said, adding that the pontiff would be sending a video message to their conference.

It is now more than eight years since the Dalai Lama was last granted a papal audience by Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI in October 2006.

Critics of the pacifying approach say it is at odds with the pope’s emphasis on interfaith dialogue. Relations with Buddhism are expected to be a central theme of Francis’s visit to Sri Lanka next month.

The Vatican has not had diplomatic relations with China since they were broken off by Mao in 1951.

On a visit to South Korea in August, the pope called for a normalisation of relations, but insisted that could only happen if China’s Catholics are accorded the right to exercise their religion freely, and when the Vatican is allowed to appoint bishops in the world’s most populous country.

The Pope reportedly defeated the Dalia Lama in a charity bowling tournament staged to raise money for childhood leukemia research.
Pope Benedict XVI reportedly defeated the Dalai Lama in a charity bowling tournament staged to raise money for childhood leukemia research.

On his way back from Korea, Francis said he would visit China as soon as the Church was allowed to do its job there.

Researchers say there are about 12 million practising Catholics in China, half of whom attend services under the auspices of a state-controlled association. The other half are involved in clandestine churches which swear allegiance to the Vatican.

Financial Express

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4 responses to “Pope won’t meet Dalai Lama… trying to avoid upsetting China”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    OOhhhh .. MY GOODNESS … we surely don’t want to upset ‘China’ and it’s ‘Big Business’, do we.
    No, no … it just wouldn’t DO to chat with the spiritual leader of ANOTHER country that China overran.
    Oh, perish the thought.
    OK. Set up the pins. Games are OK.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    (might as well stick this into ‘culture’)

    TRUE STORY Of The Day … Remembering I live in one of the ‘most advanced’ countries of the world.
    Background: (every story-teller sets a scene)
    Houses here are numbered by a system which has long been in place. I mean for centuries.
    Streets have names. One side of a street has ‘odd’ numbers, and the other side, ’even’.
    East and South are ‘odd’, North and West are ‘even’.
    (I will explain odd and even to those kids who don’t know that later.)
    It is BASIC to life here, if you want to find anyone in 3,855,100 sq mi.

    There is a white-walled house across the street from me, which has numbers on it in black 10 TIMES bigger than on any other house.
    It has been turned into some kind of ‘halfway house’ – taken over by ‘the city’ because no-one would buy it with the taxes on it, since the lot it is on is a weirdly-shaped corner lot and the tax system is generally screwed up in a method of calculating home taxation. (assholes abound everywhere)

    The Story:
    I am in my front yard splitting wood.
    Bopping up the street on the odd side, and past my house, is a ‘younger’ person (19?), headphones plugged into a cell-phone he is texting intently on. (multitasking?) The body moves to the beat.
    Perhaps it is the movement of my axe which catches his eye. He stops, turns, and then rushes up to me to ask, ‘Do you know where number XXX is ???’ (yah – that one)
    I figure he won’t hear my answer (I’m formulating several in my ancient brain) because his body is still moving to the beat, so, I simply point to numbers he could see from half-a-mile away … which causes him to actually look up, turn a head, then give me a wave, and bop across a fairly busy 4-lane street … as I wait to be a witness to another pedestrian fatality, or a car-wreak – either is possible entertainment for a normally boring day.
    There are so many thoughts….. and I fear few would understand me.

  3. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Not many interested in this, I guess. :-))))))

  4. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    One for Hind … (at least)
    VERY interesting ‘notebook’ of a tourist to Allepo … recent times … the english ‘style’ a little difficult but not impossible … sort of ‘mental jottings’ … to see the father of John the Baptiser. 😉
    http://www.besttopnews.com/kurs/02-09-2005/5840-0/
    and a second page with ‘history’ added …
    http://www.besttopnews.com/kurs/06-09-2005/6090-0

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