Media Watch

Vacationing Pope Urges World to Slow Down

REUTERS, July 12 — Midway through his annual mountain holiday in Les Combes, Italy, Pope John Paul II suggested modern society should experience the sound of silence.

“In this oasis of calm, in front of this marvelous show of nature, one can easily appreciate just how fruitful silence, something which is becoming ever more rare these days, can be,” he said July 11, Reuters reported.

The Pope made the comments during his only public appearance during his two-week vacation in the Italian Alps near France.

Addressing 6,000 people who had come to hear his Sunday angelus prayer, the Holy Father said modern society often “steals the time needed to think, sometimes to the point of making people incapable of reflection and prayer.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Pope was refreshed by his vacation, even though he could no longer hike in the mountains as he did when he was younger.

“You can see he is enjoying this,” Navarro-Valls said. “It's good for his health.”

N. Ireland Protestants Supportive of Papal Visit

BELFAST TELEGRAPH, July 9 — The Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland would welcome a proposed visit by Pope John Paul II to Northern Ireland as a significant event for Catholics, but would need to decide collectively about whether a Presbyterian delegation would accept an invitation to meet with the Pope, an unnamed spokesman told the Belfast Telegraph.

Press reports in Ireland have speculated that the Pope might visit this fall or next spring, 25 years after he first visited in 1979. Due to security considerations, the Pope did not travel to British-ruled Northern Ireland during that trip.

“Presbyterians might find it difficult to understand the full significance of a papal visit here,” the spokesman said. “However, they would recognize the importance of such an event to their Catholic neighbors and would wish them well in the celebrations and festivities surrounding such a visit.”

Vatican Criticizes Italy Over Immigrant Ship Arrests

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 13 — The Vatican joined with the German government in denouncing the arrest of three officials on an aid ship that brought 37 Africans to Sicily July 12.

The ship, operated by the German aid agency Cap Anamur, was stranded offshore since June 20 because Italian officials refused to allow it to dock. After it finally received permission to dock July 12, the ship's captain and first mate and the head of the aid agency were immediately arrested on charges of aiding illegal immigration.

Police said some of the Africans claimed they were from Sudan's troubled

Darfur region. But the ANSA news agency said authorities determined that 30 of the men were from Ghana, six from Nigeria and one from Niger, the Associated Press reported.

German federal and state officials objected to the arrests, insisting in a joint statement, “Humanitarian actions must not be criminalized.”

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, agreed with that assessment, commenting July 13 that “carrying out the duty of rescuing people, whatever their nationality, always takes priority.”