I'm curious at why the Vatican would do this? What's the motive? U.N. claims Vatican shielding war criminal Sep. 20, 2005 at 11:37AM A U.N. prosecutor at The Hague claims the Vatican is helping to shield a Croatian war crimes suspect in a Franciscan monastery. Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the U.N. international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, told the Daily Telegraph she believes Gen. Ante Gotovina is being hidden in his native Croatia. She said she decided to go public with the allegations, as she has been stonewalled by the Vatican, and received no reply to a direct letter to Pope Benedict XVI. In July, del Ponte traveled to Rome to share her intelligence with the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo. He refused to help, telling her the Vatican was not a state and thus had "no international obligations" to help the United Nations to hunt war criminals. Gotovina, 49, has been a fugitive since 2001 when he was indicted on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The United States has a $5 million bounty on his head. UPI
If this is true, it's very disturbing! Why would the Vatican shield war criminals who slaughtered a bunch of Muslims? It would be similar to shielding Nazi officers following WWII. I hope it's not true for the sake of inter-faith relations, which have made a significant progress in the past few years. This could become a international incident IF (a big IF) true.
Seems silly to me, but I'm not a Catholic. If he's a Catholic do they have some obligation to offer him sanctuary?
Interesting question. It seems to say that he's in a Franciscan Monastery and the Vatican is helping to 'shield' him. So I guess he's not 'in' the Vatican itself.
I'm saying, the Church doesn't work in the same way govt's do. The abbot of the monastery would be the one shielding.
At a minimum they are refusing to help. I don't really know that much about their influence with franciscan monks...anyone else know about that?
I'll get an answer to you later today, butbasically, the Vatican doesn't micromanage the affairs of all its orders.
