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ROME: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Rome on Wednesday (September 30), just a month before the US elections and on the heels of a diplomatic rift with the Vatican, which experts see as an effort to win conservative Catholic votes .
Pompeo will not meet with Pope Francis because the pontiff avoids such audiences during campaign periods, a Vatican source said.
Analysts say the pope has also been angered by Pompeo’s public calls for a historic Vatican-China deal to be scrapped.
LEE: Vatican and China prepare to renew historic agreement before the wrath of the United States
Instead, Pompeo will speak at a symposium hosted by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in the Italian capital on Wednesday, before meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Thursday.
Francis has been working hard to repair ties with China, but his proposals run counter to efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to push a religious freedom issue against the communist country in his campaign for a second term.
Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, went on the offensive earlier this month, calling for a 2018 China-Vatican agreement on the appointment of bishops, which is pending renewal, a risk to the church’s “moral authority.” given Beijing’s human rights record.
Powerful Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga said the US intervention was unwelcome and was clearly linked to the electoral campaign.
“They are looking for Donald Trump to be elected, and everything is based on that logic. In that sense, I don’t think they are acting in the interests of the Americans,” he said in an interview with the Repubblica newspaper on the eve of Pompeo’s visit.
Francis’ openness to China had particularly angered the “anti-Francis” network close to the US president, he said, led by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican envoy to the United States, and Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser.
“PROPAGANDA”
Massimo Faggioli, a theologian at Villanova Catholic University in the United States, said that a concerted effort was being made to “turn a certain anti-Francis and anti-Vatican sentiment, which has become more visible in recent years, into votes for Trump. ” .
“Vatican diplomacy is being used for propaganda,” he said.
According to the Pew Research Center, about half of registered Catholic voters describe themselves as Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party, while more or less identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party.
A “remarkable majority of white Catholics” voted for Trump last time, Faggioli said, and “the plan is to keep this bloc of white Catholic voters in some states where it is especially needed.”
Pompeo will also meet with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday to discuss U.S. efforts to dissuade European allies from using equipment from Chinese manufacturer Huawei in development. of their 5G networks.
The United States accuses Huawei of being a Chinese spy tool.
Italy insists that its Golden Power law, which allows the government to impose conditions, restrictions or prohibit foreign investment in strategic industries, protects it from risk.
However, Conte vowed last week to take stricter measures to ensure national security on the country’s 5G networks.
The talks are also likely to refer to Italy’s participation in China’s ambitious “Belt and Road” trade and infrastructure investment plan.
Rome became the first G7 country to sign the plan last year, a move harshly criticized by those who fear the investment plan will allow trade secrets and key technologies to fall into the hands of Beijing.
