A Vatican handbook has laid out Roman Catholic Church teaching questioning preventive war and denouncing the "horrendous crime" of abortion. But Vatican officials sidestepped questions on whether the war in Iraq was illegal or if Catholics can vote for candidates who back laws permitting abortion.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls quickly intervened at a news conference Monday when a top Vatican cardinal was asked if the faithful can cast ballots for a candidate who supports legalized abortion.
"The Holy See never gets involved in electoral or political questions directly," he said.
US Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, is a Catholic who has said that while personally opposed to abortion, he upholds the right of women to have one.
Pope John Paul II has vigorously championed the Vatican's long-standing opposition to abortion, which was denounced as a "horrendous crime" in the Vatican document released Monday.
"Far from being a right, it is a sad phenomenon," it said.
Some US churchmen, such as St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, have said Kerry should be denied the sacrament of Communion.
Navarro-Valls said that bishops could, if they desired, weigh in on campaign issues to "illuminate the consciences of the faithful with ethical elements so they can make a judgment" in elections.
Officials at the news conference described the 524-page compilation of doctrine as a kind of handbook which could help business, political and cultural leaders.
Appearing to break no new ground, the volume quoted extensively from, and offered reflections on, writings and speeches by Pope John Paul II and previous pontiffs on matters including preventive war, terrorism, the death penalty, immigration, workers' rights, poverty, globalization, free markets and human rights.
Under the heading "legitimate defense," the compendium stated that "engaging in a preventive war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions."
Arguing that the war in Iraq was necessary, the administration of US President George W. Bush said in the run-up to the Iraq War that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction.
No such weapons have turned up.
In apparent reference to the UN, the document said "international legitimacy for the use of armed forces, on the basis of rigorous assessment and with well-founded motivations, can only be given by the decision of a competent body that identifies specific situations as threats to peace and authorizes an intrusion into the sphere of autonomy usually reserved for a state."
The former Vatican envoy to the UN, Cardinal Renato Martino, was asked if "in hindsight," the US-led war against Iraq would be "illegal" in the eyes of the church.
The cardinal replied: "Did you read the address of the pope to President Bush? Read it again."
Martino was referring to the pontiff's words to Bush when the US leader paid a call at the Vatican last June. In that address, John Paul expressed "grave concern" about events in Iraq.
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