The Minister-in-Charge of the Education Department, Kunga Nima Lepcha, announced the plan to set up the Khangchendzonga Buddhist University on Monday.
Lepcha introduced the Khangchendzonga Buddhist University Bill, Sikkim, Bill No. 15, 2020; as it is a bill passed by the state legislature. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill states to promote knowledge, understanding and growth in all members of the community.
The bill will achieve its objectives by providing reflective educational opportunities as well as research opportunities, and by promoting and creating innovative educational models in higher education.
The bill will focus on developing professional competence in emerging areas of business by providing innovative and high-quality programmes and training in Buddhist studies, education, vocational domains, liberal arts, social sciences, science and engineering, hospitality and tourism, architecture, medicine and other related areas.
Notably this will be first university that will model itself along the guidelines of the National Education Policy (NEP) and also aid the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Chief Minister, Prem Singh Tamang expressed his gratitude to the members of the Assembly for creating the first private Buddhist University of India and the first university of Sikkim that has been founded by the Sikkimese people.
This is a fulfillment of the SKM party’s manifesto to build a Buddhist University in Sikkim and will place Sikkim prominently on the map of higher education in India and the world Khangchendzonga Buddhist University (KBU) will advance Buddha Dharma in Sikkim, India and the world.
It will also focus on development of teachers of Sikkim and adjoining regions through innovative models of education and offer cutting-edge vocational programs with a broad based foundation in liberal arts so that students of lower and lower middle class can be prepared for rewarding careers in India and outside.
Out of 17 SDGs of the United Nation the following are the commitments for helping the state to fulfill the goals by the Khangchendzonga Buddhist University-
1. SDG No 4 (Quality Education)
2. SDG No 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)
3. SDG No 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and
4. SDG No.17 (Partnerships to Achieve Goals)
Meanwhile, the supplementary demands for grants amounting to Rs 45,123.63 lakh were also passed by the House on Monday when the session was held just for a day in view of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation.
LONDON: Sterling fell on Wednesday after Britain’s lower house of parliament approved legislation on Tuesday that gives ministers the power to break its divorce agreement with the European Union.
The UK Internal Market Bill, which ministers acknowledge breaks international law, was approved by 340 votes to 256 in the House of Commons and now passes to the House of Lords for debate.
Sterling’s decline was small; the bill’s passage was expected and market participants have increased their expectations of a Brexit deal.
“A deal conquers all in regards to the Brexit negotiations,” said Neil Jones, head of European hedge fund sales at Mizuho.
“The Internal Market Bill passing through the House of Commons was business as expected. So far, it has gone according to market expectations. What has put the bill on the side temporarily is the expectations of a deal between the EU and the UK.”
When the Internal Market Bill was initially proposed it coincided with high chances of a no-deal Brexit. Now that those fears have diminished, so did the worries around the harmful effects of the bill on the Withdrawal Agreement.
The government says clauses in the bill which override the Withdrawal Agreement will only be used if talks on a border solution with the EU fail. If a deal can be reached on the Irish border, the powers may not be needed.
A resurgence in COVID-19 cases also drew attention away from the bill.
“When you factor the impact on market, sometimes what was previously a major factor falls to second stage,” said Jones.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a news conference on COVID-19 on Wednesday as he grapples with a second wave of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Britain, which has the worst official death toll in Europe, reported 7,143 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest single figure to date, and 71 deaths, the worst daily toll since July.
Brexit negotiations continue this week in what is so far the last leg of talks before an EU summit next month.
Meanwhile, Norway and Britain have reached a bilateral agreement on fisheries, the Norwegian government said on Wednesday, before Britain leaves the EU at the end of the year.
The British pound was last trading down 0.3% versus the U.S. dollar at $1.2817, after reaching earlier its lowest since Monday. Versus the euro, sterling fell 0.2% at 91.55 pence. – Reuters
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a debate about her policy as part of Germany’s budget 2021 debate at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a debate about her policy as part of Germany’s budget 2021 debate at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020.
Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP
Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a debate about her policy as part of Germany’s budget 2021 debate at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a debate about her policy as part of Germany’s budget 2021 debate at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020.
Photo: Markus Schreiber, AP
Germany welcomes China climate goal, sees need for EU action
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BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has welcomed China’s plan to be carbon-neutral by 2060, contrasting it with the U.S. failure to abide by the goals of the Paris climate accord.
In a speech Wednesday to Germany’s parliament, Merkel stressed the significance of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement last week as the European Union debates ramping up its own medium- and long-term emissions reduction goals.
“I think it’s beyond debate that we need to work with China when it comes to protecting the climate,” she told lawmakers. “China is now the biggest emitter worldwide and it’s very important that China contributes to efforts to protect the climate.”
Without naming the United States — the world’s second biggest source of man-made greenhouse gases — she added: “And unlike other large emitters, it’s encouraging that China stands by the Paris climate accord.”
Merkel said the target set by Beijing should be seen in light of the economic development China still has ahead of it compared to other industrialized nations.
“This is a very ambitious goal that should spur us in Europe to really fulfil our targets,” she said.
The EU recently proposed raising its target for cutting planet-warming greenhouse gases to at least 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. Some of the 27-nation bloc’s members, particularly in the coal-reliant east, are opposed to the goal, however.
Germany’s environment minister said she hoped to reach consensus among EU members during her country’s current six-month presidency of the bloc.
International climate policy is gaining momentum and we are perhaps at a crucial turning point for the future of this planet,” Svenja Schulze said Wednesday before a meeting with EU environment ministers in Berlin. “Two of the world’s most economically robust regions, the EU and China, are reinforcing the effectiveness of the Paris agreement.”
Asked whether Europe shouldn’t be setting its sights even higher and aim for a 65% reduction, as scientists have suggested is necessary to achieve the Paris accord’s goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), Schulze said the current proposal envisages a review every five years.
“What’s important to me is that we reach an agreement,” she said. “We need this signal now.”
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive criticised judiciary overhauls by the nationalist governments in Poland and Hungary as a “major source of controversy” and “serious concern” in its first report on Wednesday about failings in the rule of law in the bloc.
FILE PHOTO: European Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova gives a news conference on EU rules on data protection (GDPR) and the new EU Strategy on victims’ rights, in Brussels, Belgium, June 24, 2020. Olivier Hoslet/Pool via REUTERS
Seen by Reuters ahead of official release on Wednesday, the report also focused on challenges to media independence and fighting corruption, saying the coronavirus pandemic served as a “stress test” of democratic resilience of the 27 EU states.
The report comes as the bloc is looking to link access to EU money, including a new 750 billion euro coronavirus recovery fund, to respecting the rule of law.
“Poland’s justice reforms since 2015 have been a major source of controversy,” the report said, adding that Hungary was also among member states where “the direction of change has given rise to serious concern about the impact of reforms on judicial independence.”
Warsaw and Budapest are locked in long-running battles with the EU over undercutting democratic checks and balances through putting courts, media, NGOs and academics under more state control.
“The European Union was created also as an antidote to … authoritarian tendencies,” said the EU’s top democracy official, Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, who co-wrote the report.
“The rule of law is not about being right-wing or left-wing; it is about being right or wrong.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban this week called for Jourova to be dismissed after she said his vision of “illiberal democracy” was in fact spearheading the creation of an “ailing democracy” in Hungary.
The Commission rejected Orban’s request.
Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia were also criticised in the report for shortcomings in ensuring judiciary independence. The Commission noted corruption scandals in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Malta.
The report also said some governments’ emergency measures to tackle coronavirus went too far in restraining the media and civil society’s scrutiny of public decisions.
Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Giles Elgood
According to Turkish newspaper SABAH, the Turkish president stressed that lately Euro-Turkish relations are being tested due to the tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“With this letter, Turkey wants to convey its proposals for resolving the problem,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly wrote in the letter, as the paper reports.
It is the second letter the Turkish President sent to the EU leaders following his first one before the scheduled EU Summit on Turkey, which was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In that letter, which, according to the Cypriot newspaper “Phileleftheros”, was not sent to the leaders of Greece and Cyprus, Erdogan presents his well-known Turkish narrative about the Eastern Mediterranean and claims that the tension is caused by Greece and Cyprus, citing in the actions of Nicosia since 2003 (demarcation, licensing, drilling).
Britain has offered a three-year transition period for European fishing fleets to allow them to prepare for the post-Brexit changes as part of an 11th-hour deal sweetener.
The catches of EU fishermen would be “phased down” between 2021 and 2024 to offer time for European coastal communities to adapt to the changes.
The lengthy transition period is contained in a new negotiating paper tabled ahead of the current round of negotiations in Brussels between the teams respectively led by the UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, and his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier.
The idea of a phase-down period had been floated previously but details had not been provided until recent days.
“We have a long way to go but if the other problematic issues can be sorted, it doesn’t look like fisheries will stand in the way of an agreement”, said one senior EU diplomat.
Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said during a visit to Washington on Tuesday night that he believed there was a good chance of a trade deal. “The obstacles are not insurmountable,” he said. “We should be able to get this deal done.”
However, UK fisheries leaders warned the government not to sell them out. Barrie Deas, the head of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said: “What we wouldn’t agree to is surrendering fishing rights in order to have a trade deal.
“There is no expectation within the UK fishing industry that the UK will back down on fisheries. If anything, the commitments that have been made to the industry are stronger now than when the negotiations started. We’ve been given clear and unequivocal commitments.”
The UK remains fixed on replacing the common fisheries policy with a system of “zonal attachment” that would offer a significant increase in catches for British fishing fleets.
Currently, Britain’s economic zone is part of common EU waters. The UK receives a fixed share based on how much stock its fishermen caught during a reference period between 1973 and 1978.
Under the new system proposed by the UK, the two sides would agree on what percentage of shared stocks are attached to each of their European economic zones each year. Catch quotas would be organised in line with that percentage.
Timeline
From Brefusal to Brexit: a history of Britain in the EU
Show
Brefusal
The French president, Charles de Gaulle, vetoes Britain’s entry to EEC, accusing the UK of a “deep-seated hostility” towards the European project.
Brentry
With Sir Edward Heath having signed the accession treaty the previous year, the UK enters the EEC in an official ceremony complete with a torch-lit rally, dickie-bowed officials and a procession of political leaders, including former prime ministers Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home.
Referendum
The UK decides to stay in the common market after 67% voted “yes”. Margaret Thatcher, later to be leader of the Conservative party, campaigned to remain.
‘Give us our money back’
Margaret Thatcher negotiated what became known as the UK rebate with other EU members after the “iron lady” marched into the former French royal palace at Fontainebleau to demand “our own money back” claiming for every £2 contributed we get only £1 back” despite being one of the “three poorer” members of the community.
It was a move that sowed the seeds of Tory Euroscepticism that was to later cause the Brexit schism in the party.
The Bruges speech
Thatcher served notice on the EU community in a defining moment in EU politics in which she questioned the expansionist plans of Jacques Delors, who had remarked that 80% of all decisions on economic and social policy would be made by the European Community within 10 years with a European government in “embryo”. That was a bridge too far for Thatcher.
The cold war ends
Collapse of Berlin wall and fall of communism in eastern Europe, which would later lead to expansion of EU.
‘No, no, no’
Divisions between the UK and the EU deepened with Thatcher telling the Commons in an infamous speech it was ‘no, no, no’ to what she saw as Delors’ continued power grab. Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper ratchets up its opposition to Europe with a two-fingered “Up yours Delors” front page.
Black Wednesday
A collapse in the pound forced prime minister John Major and the then chancellor Norman Lamont to pull the UK out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism.
The single market
On 1 January, customs checks and duties were removed across the bloc. Thatcher hailed the vision of “a single market without barriers – visible or invisible – giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous people”.
Maastricht treaty
Tory rebels vote against the treaty that paved the way for the creation of the European Union. John Major won the vote the following day in a pyrrhic victory.
Repairing the relationship
Tony Blair patches up the relationship. Signs up to social charter and workers’ rights.
Ukip
Nigel Farage elected an MEP and immediately goes on the offensive in Brussels. “Our interests are best served by not being a member of this club,” he said in his maiden speech. “The level playing field is about as level as the decks of the Titanic after it hit an iceberg.”
The euro
Chancellor Gordon Brown decides the UK will not join the euro.
EU enlarges to to include eight countries of the former eastern bloc including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
EU expands again, allowing Romania and Bulgaria into the club.
Migrant crisis
Anti-immigration hysteria seems to take hold with references to “cockroches” by Katie Hopkins in the Sun and tabloid headlines such as “How many more can we take?” and “Calais crisis: send in the dogs”.
David Cameron returns from Brussels with an EU reform package – but it isn’t enough to appease the Eurosceptic wing of his own party
Brexit referendum
The UK votes to leave the European Union, triggering David Cameron’s resignation and paving the way for Theresa May to become prime minister
Britain leaves the EU
After years of parliamentary impasse during Theresa May’s attempt to get a deal agreed, the UK leaves the EU.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>A failure to agree annually on catches could lead to EU fleets being locked out of British waters. France is particularly concerned by the impact on its fishing communities and has taken a “maximalist” position that the status quo should be protected.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>While the policy would deliver the extra catches promised as a Brexit bonus, it is understood the government is also making new commitments on maintaining EU sustainability standards and cooperation on the collection of data.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>The offer was part of five new draft negotiating documents submitted by the government, including legal texts on fisheries, the “level playing field”, law enforcement and judicial cooperation, civil nuclear cooperation and social security coordination.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>An EU official said: “We can confirm that we received additional documents from the UK. We are studying them.”
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>According to Brussels sources, the UK’s paper on state aid, still the most contentious of the outstanding issues, offered to lay out a series of “principles” on controlling domestic subsidies.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>The EU said the paper offered hope that the UK would build on provisions in the recently signed UK-Japan deal. The trade deal with Tokyo prevents either side from indefinitely guaranteeing the debts of struggling companies or providing open-ended bailouts without approved restructuring plans.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>But the paper failed to offer appropriate “governance” proposals that would allow Brussels to keep the UK to its pledges, EU sources said.
The EU wanted to ensure that any commitments were seen through and that in the event of a breach, parts of the trade deal could be immediately suspended.
EU diplomats also said any agreement on such a method of regulating state aid would need to be taken “at the highest level”, as it would represent a significant divergence from Brussels’ proposal.
The EU has pushed for the UK to accept the bloc’s state aid rules, which do not allow unfair subsidies to be granted. The UK’s position would instead offer recourse in the event of trade being distorted.
<
p class=”css-38z03z”>“The UK-Japan deal is obviously now the basis but it isn’t yet enough and we need to have bite,” said one diplomatic source. A second source added that the proposal was as yet “more of the same” but that it was hoped that the week’s negotiation would flesh it out. “That is what matters,” the source said.
Deputy Speaker of the European Parliament Fabio Massimo Castaldo has expressed concern over the armed clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“This conflict may destabilize the South Caucasus. I strictly condemn Azerbaijan’s hostilities against civilians, in full violation of humanitarian law.
I also strictly condemn the rhetoric through which [President of Turkey Recep] Erdogan is actively supporting Azerbaijan’s actions. I hope for the compact interference of the European Union before the situation explodes,” he tweeted.
Nick Clegg, the UK’s former deputy prime minister and current vice-president of global affairs for Facebook, has spent the past week trying to dispel the rumour that Facebook would soon be forced to stop offering its services in the EU.
<p class="no_name">Facebook had attempted to persuade a Dublin judge that a ruling by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner would make it difficult for the company to keep operating anywhere in Europe. This was reported more widely as a threat to leave Europe.</p>
<p class="no_name">Although a lot of it can be overlooked as posturing in court documents, it is still a dramatic situation to find ourselves in, with a service used daily by the majority of adults in the country at risk from a court decision.</p>
<blockquote class="inline__content inline__content--pullquote">
If the US is not a safe place for European data, and internet companies cannot move data seamlessly between the US and EU, it will reshape the global internet
Understanding how we got here gives a great insight into the shifting sands of global data regulation, the future of the internet and how Ireland has found itself at the centre of it all.
<p class="no_name">This affair escalated dramatically in July when, after a string of court cases, international frameworks and EU directives, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the United States was not a safe place for companies to send the private data of EU citizens.</p>
<p class="no_name">There are some really big implications from that ruling. If the US is not a safe place for European data, and internet companies cannot move data seamlessly between the US and EU, it will reshape the global internet as we know it. It poses big questions for US tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook that offer their services in Europe: how do they operate if they cannot transfer user data back to headquarters for processing?</p>
<p class="no_name">As most of their European operations are in Ireland, the responsibility fell to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner to enforce this ruling, which she did against Facebook in early September. Facebook has since challenged the action and the Irish High Court has paused it until November.</p>
<blockquote class="inline__content inline__content--pullquote">
To think about the GDPR with terms such as “individual privacy” and “data rights” is quite an American way to look at it
Ireland is playing host to this dramatic battle over the future of the internet, which could see the emergence of a global set of rules for the treatment of data at best, or at worst, a breakdown in how the modern internet works.
<p class="no_name">The first three decades of the internet have been shaped by US norms and values. Every government is now trying to mould the global internet in its own image. The trick here is to push hard to apply your own world view, to shape the internet to your own cultural norms and legal frameworks, but not so hard that you effectively splinter the internet in your part of the world, as China has done with its “Great Firewall”.</p>
<aside class="related-articles--instream has-3"/><h4 class="crosshead">Landmark legislation</h4><p class="no_name">The European Union has two landmark pieces of legislation aimed at making the internet distinctly more European – the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect in 2018, and the ePrivacy Regulation, which is still in the works.</p>
<p class="no_name">To fully understand the EU’s vision for a more European internet, we first have to make sure we are viewing it through a European lens, not an American one.</p>
<p class="no_name">To think about the GDPR with terms such as “individual privacy” and “data rights” is quite an American way to look at it. The European framing of this issue is instead to think in terms of “corporate responsibility” and the “environment within which my data is handled”.</p>
<blockquote class="inline__content inline__content--pullquote">
We want people informed and empowered, but when was the last time you read 20 pages of ‘terms and conditions’ before downloading an app?
To illustrate this with an analogy, let’s look at how you could apply those two frames to a different area: food production.
<p class="no_name">The American approach would ask questions such as “How do we empower individuals to make smart choices about the foods they eat?” When we ask questions such as this about foods, we end up with solutions such as nutrition labels on food packaging – standardised, clear, concise ways that citizens can engage with food providers from an informed and empowered position.</p>
<p class="no_name">I’m a big fan of nutrition labels, but there are limitations to this approach. I’m not a food expert.</p>
<p class="no_name">So smart regulation also sets standards. The European Union cares about the processes by which our food is produced. We make rules about the hormone levels in our beef and the chemicals on our crops. This is a good thing and does much more of the heavy lifting to improve the quality of our foods than information alone could accomplish.</p>
<p class="no_name">The same analogy applies to data. We want people informed and empowered, but when was the last time you read 20 pages of “terms and conditions” before downloading an app?</p>
<p class="no_name">That’s where legislation such as GDPR comes in. The “nutritional information” is a part of it, but the much bigger and more substantial changes are on the corporate responsibility side.</p>
<p class="no_name">The EU cares that farms and food-processing plants operate responsibly, and likewise they care about how companies behave with our data. Huge amounts of GDPR is focused on processes and procedures to make companies less sloppy when they handle our private data.</p>
<h4 class="crosshead">Problem with US</h4><p class="no_name">As the Brexit negotiations remind us, the EU also cares about the high-level agricultural policies and practices in the countries we import food from, and likewise it cares about the data protection and security policies of the countries our data is sent to.</p>
<p class="no_name">The EU has always had problems with the way that the US does beef, and now it has beef with the way the US manages data.</p>
<p class="no_name">Edward Snowden, a CIA contractor turned whistleblower, brought to light the fact that the US government regularly monitors the private data passing through the servers of US companies. Since GDPR came into effect, many companies have put agreements in place saying, in effect, “we will transfer your data to the US, but we will ensure the same level of safeguards required under GDPR”.</p>
<p class="no_name">Max Schrems, an Austrian citizen and privacy advocate, challenged one of these companies, Facebook Ireland, saying it can’t make such a promise because once it sends his private data to Facebook US, it can’t stop the US government from snooping on it. Keeping that promise is outside of Facebook’s control.</p>
<p class="no_name">The European courts agreed, and so here we are, with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner trying to enforce this with Facebook Ireland, with wider implications for every other tech company to follow.</p>
<p class="no_name">GDPR has been a success in making the internet more European, with most large global tech companies changing the way they handle private data inside and outside the EU. The next big test, which we will see play out here, is if GDPR can change the way the US government treats the private data of non-US citizens, or maybe just EU citizens.</p>
<p class="no_name"><em>Peter Tanham is a digital strategist who writes a weekly newsletter about tech policy in Ireland</em></p>
Sister of Charity of Nazareth Elaine McCarron, formerly Sister Michael Maria, died Sept. 21. She was 88 and in her 67th year of religious life.
Sister McCarron, a native of Washington, D.C., served as an educator in Kentucky and Virginia. She also served as a minister of religious education in various parishes in Virginia and Maryland.
Sister McCarron was appointed by the U.S. bishops to help prepare teachers in Riga, Latvia, to teach religion as a way of developing the Church in Eastern Europe.
She served as an adjunct professor of catechetics at the Toronto School of Theology over several summers. She also served the church in Belize in Central America by helping establish and strengthen catechetical programs there.
Sister McCarron also served her religious community as a volunteer in the archives at Nazareth from 2009 to 2019.
She is survived by her sisters Joan Robinson and Maureen Mahoney, members of her extended family and religious community.
Sister McCarron will be buried Oct. 1. The prayer ritual will be filmed and shared.
Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the SCN, Office of Mission Advancement, P.O. Box 9, Nazareth, Ky., 40048.
(David Shepardson | Reuters)Donald Trump shall grant naturalization for illegal immigrants if they join military forces
A Vatican critique of U.S, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the latest international flare up involving the administration of President Donald Trump which has in recent years lashed out at insitution and allies in the world of security, health, trade, and now religion.
The Holy See said on Sept. 30 it had denied a request from Pompeo for an audience with Pope Francis.
It accused the Secretary of State of trying to drag the Catholic Church into the U.S. presidential election by denouncing its relations with China, Reuters news agency reported.
Remarks came from the two top diplomatic officials at the Vatican after Pompeo made an accusation against the Catholic Church.
These were made in an article and in a series of tweets this month of the church putting its “moral authority” at risk by renewing an agreement with China over the appointment of bishops.
The Vatican’s two top diplomats, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher, said Francis had declined a request from Pompeo for an audience, as the Pope avoids meeting politicians ahead of elections.
“Yes, he asked. But the Pope had already said clearly that political figures are not received in election periods. That is the reason,” Parolin said.
The Vatican’s two-year-old agreement with Beijing gives the Pope some say over the appointment of Chinese bishops and it was due to expire next month, but is expected to be renewed, Reuters said.
Pompeo was in Rome on Sept. 30 and due to meet Vatican officials the following day and had repeated denunciations of China’s record on religious freedom at an event hosted by the U.S. embassy to the Holy See.
The Guardian newspaper reported on the incident that the Italian news agency Ansa asked Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, if the U.S/ unilaterally organizing an event of religious freedom amounted to exploitation of the Pope in the run-up to the U.S. elections.
He replied: “Yes, that is precisely why the Pope will not meet American secretary of state Mike Pompeo.”.
The Reuters report said that Parolin and Gallagher both described Pompeo’s public criticism as a “surprise”, coming just before his planned visit.
“Normally when you’re preparing these visits between high-level officials, you negotiate the agenda for what you are going to talk about privately, confidentially. It’s one of the rules of diplomacy,” Gallagher said.
Pompeo launched a strong attack on religious persecution in China and called on the Vatican to stand up for religious freedom there, in an implicit criticism of Pope Francis’s rapprochement with Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Nowhere is religious freedom under assault more than in China,” Pompeo said in his speech in Rome.
He cited China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims and other religious minorities, including Catholics, as well as the crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
“We must support those demanding freedom in our time.”
Pompeo addressed was at a conference on religious freedom organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican, and invoked the courage of Pope John Paul II in opposing Soviet Communism.
“May the church, and all those who know that we are ultimately accountable to God, be so bold in our time,” said Pompeo.
The Journal reported a “senior Vatican official” expressed irritation with Pompeo’s suggestion that the Holy See hadn’t been standing up for religious freedom in China.
“We speak about religious freedom to China all the time, but we do so in our own way,” the official said. He suggested that Pompeo’s speech was motivated by U.S. domestic politics: “He is clearly exploiting the issue of religious freedom in view of the election in November.”
