- JULY 24 2001

 Pope chastises Bush over death penalty

FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME

THE Pope urged President Bush not to support the use of human embryos for medical research yesterday and condemned the death penalty, which Mr Bush authorised a record number of times while Governor of Texas and has reintroduced at federal level as President. The pontiff met Mr Bush at his summer residence at Castelgandolfo, in the Alban hills south of Rome. He bluntly delivered the kind of message on the crisis of values in Western society which the more moderate anti-globalisation protesters would have liked to convey to Mr Bush had they been able to penetrate the "red zone" around the G8 summit venue.

Mr Bush, with his wife, Laura, and his daughter, Barbara, sat straight-backed with his hands in his lap, a little like a schoolboy in the presence of a stern master. He and his family, who are Methodists, all wore black, in accordance with Vatican protocol, with the women covering their hair in lace mantillas.

The Pope told Mr Bush that America had a moral responsibility to reject actions that devalued and violated human life. He said that leaders must not succumb to the current "tragic coarsening of consciences" and "acquiesce in evils such as euthanasia, infanticide and - most recently - proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, which were destined for destruction in the process". Mr Bush is under pressure to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He has, however, moved to bar American funding of international family planning groups that advocate abortion.

Britain has approved stem cell research on the ground that it could help to cure disease, including Parkinson's, from which the Pope suffers. The Vatican says that research on embryos is morally unacceptable and could be the thin end of the wedge leading to human cloning.

The Pope's condemnation of the "evils" of stem cell research has raised the political stakes for Mr Bush. Allowing the funding to continue is likely to alienate America's 44 million Roman Catholic voters. But if Mr Bush blocks funding or sharply restricts it, he will face criticism from political moderates, the scientific community and disease sufferers.

Mr Bush said that the stem cell issue was not a matter of politics. "I frankly do not care what the political polls say," Mr Bush said. "I do care about the opinions of people, particularly someone as profound as the Holy Father."

On the death penalty, the Pope said America should "reject practices that devalue and violate human life". During Mr Bush's six years as Governor of Texas he authorised 152 executions. Since his election as President there have been two federal executions after a gap of four decades.

Mr Bush praised the Pope as an opponent of tyranny: "You have urged men and women of goodwill to take to their knees before God and stand unafraid before tyrants." Mr Bush avoided any mention of the G8 summit but the Pope referred to "the greatly accelerated process of globalisation which you and other leaders of the industrialised nations discussed in Genoa" and hoped "all those who hold human rights dear . . . will struggle for a world of justice and social solidarity".

Agence France Presse, 7/23/01

Pope Expresses Death Penalty Opposition to President Bush

 Pope John Paul II admonished President Bush for his support of capital punishment, saying the death penalty does not belong in "a free and virtuous society." At his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, the pontiff told the visiting President, "In defending the right to life, in law and through a vibrant culture of life, America can show the world the path to a truly humane future." The Pope, an ardent opponent of the death penalty, told Bush that America "must reject practices that devalue human life."