Palestinian Leader Meets Pope

VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE, Feb. 13 — The prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Ahmed Qurei, met Pope John Paul II on Feb. 12 in Qurei's first visit to the Vatican.

The Pope said Qurei's “presence brings back vivid memories of my pilgrimage to the Holy Land, during which I prayed fervently for peace and justice in the region.”

John Paul noted “while signs of hope have not been altogether absent, unfortunately the sad situation in the Holy Land is a cause of suffering for all. … It is reconciliation that the Holy Land needs: forgiveness not revenge, bridges not walls.”

Vatican Compares Cloning to Nazi Experiments

THE SUN-HERALD (Australia), Feb. 15 — Bishop Elio Sgreccia, senior adviser to Pope John Paul II on bioethics, denounced reports that South Korean researchers have successfully cloned human embryos, likening the research to Nazi experiments in concentration camps that reduced human beings to lab rats, according to Australia's The Sun-Herald.

“You can't kill human life in the hopes of finding medicines to save other lives,” Bishop Sgreccia said. “The scientists are saying, ‘First I'll clone you, then I'll kill you.’ This is not a victory but is stepping on human life twice.”

The bishop also disputed the alleged medical benefits researchers said would derive from the stem cells to be “extracted” from the destroyed embryos, noting, “There is no proof that stem cells taken from embryos are better for cures than those taken from adults.”

Pope and Bush Among Peace Prize Nominees

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 14 — The Nobel Prize committee has announced the people nominated for the 2004 Peace Prize, which includes 129 people and 44 organizations, according to the Associated Press.

Among the people nominated are Pope John Paul II, President George Bush, one-time U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei, and Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli technician who is still in an Israeli jail for exposing that country's nuclear-weapons program.

Committee secretary Geir Lundestad said he expected more nominations from committee members at their first meeting March 2.

Organizations likely to be nominated include the Catholic lay movement Sant'Egidio, which tries to negotiate an end to civil wars in the developing world.

On Valentine's Day, Pope Calls for Chaste Love

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Feb. 14 — In a message directed at French youth, Pope John Paul II encouraged young lovers to practice chastity, or pure love, before and after marriage, Agence France-Presse reported.

“Marriage between a man and a woman and the creation of a family is built on strong ties between two persons and a definitive commitment, not merely on the emotional aspect, which cannot by itself constitute a basis for marriage,” the Pope told a delegation of French bishops.

In his Valentine's Day comments, he warned that mass media have constructed “a culture of the immediate and the fleeting that is not always conducive to the search for meaning, inner maturity or moral judgment.”

John Paul urged the French bishops to train good priests to minister to and inspire young people.