| International News

"It seems to me that today something is beginning to move, which shows that prayers are not useless," the pope told reporters in northern Italy July 25 as he returned to the chalet in Les Combes where he has been vacationing.

"Let us strongly pray that tomorrow's conference will bear fruit and bring concrete results for peace," the pope said. "I hope they find stable and lasting solutions" to the violence that has ignited in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

While sending official observers to the Rome summit for peace in the Middle East, the Vatican also planned to continue working behind the scenes in pushing for a peaceful solution to ongoing violence in the region, said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state.

The Vatican announced late July 25 that it had been invited to participate in the July 26 summit as an official observer.

Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's foreign minister, and two officials from his staff were to represent the Vatican at the meeting, said the announcement from the Vatican press office.

Before Vatican participation was announced, Cardinal Sodano told Italian state television that the Vatican would be following the summit's progress with "great attention."

"The Holy See tries to be 'super partes' (above all parties); it has a universal mission to unite all of humanity," the cardinal said in the July 24 interview with RAI television.

His remarks echoed Pope Benedict's July 21 comments that the Vatican tends to leave diplomatic bargaining to other nations "because we do not get involved in politics even if we do everything for peace."

However, the Vatican supports everything that can facilitate and lead to peace, the pope had said.

Because modern civilization calls for dialogue, not war, to resolve disputes, every day the Vatican has been contacting foreign diplomats in an effort to foster a peaceful resolution, Cardinal Sodano said.

"There has been intense effort contacting the chanceries of many of the countries" involved in or concerned about resolving the Mideast violence, he said.

Cardinal Sodano said the Vatican has been emphasizing Pope Benedict's concerns and wishes for an immediate cease-fire and a humanitarian corridor in the area of conflict so as to get needed aid into the region.

The Vatican will continue to maintain contact "with various governments of the world in order to make its contribution so that this tragedy may end as soon as possible," he said.

Israel began a bombing campaign against targets in Lebanon and deployed troops into the country after the Islamic militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid July 12. The violence, which includes Hezbollah launching rocket attacks into northern Israel, has killed about 400 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and about 35 Israelis and has left hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

In a separate interview with Italy's leading Catholic magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, the cardinal countered criticism that the Vatican was not understanding enough of Israel's reasons to bomb what it says are Hezbollah militants' strongholds in Lebanon.

In the magazine's July 30 issue, released July 25, Cardinal Sodano said that over the last century the Vatican has always held fast to "reasons of peace" which will often "displease one or the other side of belligerent parties."

The church's calls for nonviolence will always carry the risk of being criticized, misunderstood, or accused of taking sides, he said, "but this is the price one must pay in order to contribute to the establishment of peace."

Church teaching says that, if there is no competent and sufficiently powerful authority at the world level to resolve the danger of war, nations cannot be denied the right to legitimate defense once every means of peaceful resolution has been exhausted, he said.

However, even in cases of legitimate self-defense, innocent civilians must not be caught up in the fighting, and basic humanitarian laws "must never be violated," he said in the magazine interview.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Sodano praised the Italian government and others who made the July 26 summit a reality, saying the city of Rome has a special "vocation of peace for the world."

Government ministers and leaders from at least 13 countries, including the United States and Canada, were expected to attend the special summit aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. Representatives from the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank were to attend the meeting, which also was expected to address reconstruction plans and aid to Lebanon.