Vatican and Afghan King Agree on Negotiated Peace

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Nov. 27 — The Vatican's secretary for relations with states, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, and the former king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, agreed on the need for a “negotiated peace” in talks at the exiled monarch's residence in Rome. “They talked about the need for … international solidarity for the reconstruction of the country, in the conviction that arms, in themselves, cannot bring about peace and security,” said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls.

The meeting preceded talks among several Afghan parties in Bonn, Germany, on formulating a broad-based administration in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban.

Pope Meets with Former Polish Communist Leader

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 28 — Pope John Paul II met with former Polish Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski almost 20 years after the start of martial law in Poland, the wire service reported. Jaruzelski imposed martial law to crush the independent trade union Solidarity, and the Pope's support for that union is credited with helping bring about the demise of Soviet bloc communism.

The Vatican released no information about the half-hour meeting in Rome, saying it was strictly private. But the Polish news agency PAP quoted Jaruzelski as saying, “The fact he received me means that he recognizes also whatever positive I have done.”

The meeting came during a break in Jaruzelski's trial in Warsaw on charges he issued a national order allowing soldiers to fire on workers during anti-communist demonstrations in 1970, when he was defense minister.

Vatican Not Ready to Open Archive, Cardinal Kasper Says

THE JERUSALEM POST, Nov. 22 — The Vatican said it is not ready to open its secret archive relating to the Nazi Holocaust, the Israeli daily said. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, conveyed the judgment to a gathering of Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

“Out of respect for the truth, the Holy See is ready to consent to the access of the Vatican's Secret Archive as soon as the reorganizing and cataloguing work is completed,” the cardinal said, quoting an official Vatican communique.

Avi Becker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, said that in order for a Catholic-Jewish commission of scholars studying the Vatican's response to the Holocaust to continue its work, “the Jewish world has to get a more precise sense of the timing of the archives' opening.” Two of the commission's three Jewish members, frustrated with restrictions on the archives, have resigned.

Kazakh President Designated Papal Knight

INTERFAX, Nov. 23 — Pope John Paul has conferred the Order of Pius, the Vatican's highest award for heads of foreign states, on Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan. In a diploma of a Knight of the Order of Pius, the Pope expressed his gratitude to Nazarbayev “for the bright humanity and respect” shown during the Holy Father's visit to Kazakhstan in September, as well as for the “skillfulness and talent” which Nazarbayev exercises in his capacity as president of the “noble and beloved” Kazakh people.