Wikileaks: British ambassador worried by Pope's outreach to Anglicans

CWNews.com / December 13, 2010

American diplomats believed that Pope Benedict XVI was thinking of Anglicans in the US and Australia as well as Great Britain when he extended an invitation to Anglicans in Anglicanorum Coetibus, according to documents revealed by Wikileaks.

The US diplomatic communications show that the Pope’s gesture was opposed by Anglican leaders. The British government also was concerned about the move, and the British ambassador reportedly warned against angry—even possibly violent—reactions against Catholics if Pope Benedict went through with his plans.

The Wikileaks documents—in this as in other cases—show that American (and in this case also British) diplomatic personnel had a limited understanding of Vatican policies.

UPDATE:

In related news...

An American account of the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi bishop, as described in documents made pubic by Wikileaks, is seriously inaccurate according to Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk. The Wikileaks documents on the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho—the Chaldean Catholic leader of Mosul, who died was kidnapped in February 2008 and killed by his captors soon thereafter—“say that he was killed immediately, and this is not true,” Archbishop Sako said.

Archbishop Rahho was abducted by gunmen who immediately shot and killed his three companions, the Iraqi prelate said. But the archbishop himself was kept alive. Archbishop Sako explained that the kidnappers “negotiated a big ransom that the Church could not pay,” and only then was Archbishop Rabbo killed.

Archbishop Sako said that the diplomatic documents made public by Wikileaks show an effort at “politicizing the kidnapping.” He explained:

He was reported as having been killed by Al Qaida. Who knows, maybe Al Qaida or maybe others; nobody can know. There was no enquiry, and this is a big problem in Iraq. Each one can kill everyone and nobody cares and/or is following up the case.