News

By Patrick B. Craine

ROME, July 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, which ended on Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the Vatican on Saturday for a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI.

According to the Vatican communiqué issued after the meeting, “With regard to Canada, the conversation involved ethical values, the defense and promotion of life, marriage and family.”

Harper, who called the meeting an “honor,” did not explicitly mention life or family issues in his statement after the audience. According to Harper, the twenty-minute conversation addressed “a number of important issues, including human rights and an ethical response to the global economic crisis.”

Harper praised the Holy Father for his “moral and humanitarian leadership as an advocate of human dignity, peace and religious liberty, and for the spiritual leadership he provides to Catholics in Canada and throughout the world.”

Harper's delegation included his wife, Laureen, and their two children.  He also brought Industry Minister Tony Clement, MPs Dean Del Mastro of Peterborough and Paul Calandra of Oak Ridges-Markham, Senator Consiglio di Nino, Chief of Staff Guy Giorno, Vatican Ambassador Anne Leahy, and press spokesman Dmitri Soudas.

Following his audience with Benedict XVI, Harper met with the Pope's Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, for a discussion that included “human rights and religious freedoms,” according to Harper's office.  The Harpers then toured St. Peter's Basilica.

According to the Vatican communiqué, on the world scale, the audience “focused on several issues of international politics discussed at the G-8 and on the results of the summit, even in the light of the new encyclical, 'Caritas in Veritate,' and particularly the economic and financial crisis and its ethical implications, aid to developing countries, especially Africa, climatic changes, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.”

Harper was the last of five G8 leaders to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, which included the prime minister of Japan, Taro Aso; the prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd; the president of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak; and the president of the United States, Barack Obama.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Pope Benedict Spoke to Obama on Right to Life, Freedom of Conscience
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071002.html