- Title: Pompeo visits Vatican in shadow of impeachment crisis at home
- Date: 2nd October 2019
- Summary: VATICAN CITY (OCTOBER 2, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, MIKE POMPEO, AND U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE VATICAN, CALLISTA GINGRICH, VISITING VATICAN'S SALA REGIA POMPEO LOOKING AT FRESCO FRESCO INSIDE SALA REGIA POMPEO LOOKING AT FRESCO FRESCO / POMPEO LISTENING TO GUIDE'S EXPLANATIONS VARIOUS OF POMPEO LISTENING TO GUIDE'S EXPLANATIONS SWISS GUARD SALUTING POMPEO ARRIVING TO SPEAK AT SYMPOSIUM WELCOMED BY SECRETARY FOR RELATIONS WITH STATES WITHIN THE HOLY SEE'S SECRETARIAT OF STATE, BISHOP PAUL GALLAGHER VARIOUS OF POMPEO TAKING SEAT POMPEO SPEAKING WITH GALLAGHER WOMAN HOLDING SYMPOSIUM'S BROCHURE SAYING (English) "PATHWAYS TO ACHIEVING HUMAN DIGNITY" (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, MIKE POMPEO, SAYING: "We must recognise the roots of religious repression. Authoritarian regimes and autocrats will never accept the power higher than their own and that cause all sorts of assaults on human dignity. We must exercise our moral voice to confront them. The Holy See and the United States have had differences over the years, good people can disagree but on the issues most fundamental, on the issues of human dignity and religious freedom, these issues that transcend everyday politics on the enduring struggle of the individual's right to believe and worship we must, and I know we will, march together." MAN TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH OF GALLAGHER AND POMPEO GINGRICH LOOKING SYMPOSIUM IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 16th October 2019 11:30
- Keywords: Vatican City U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Pope Francis Rome Italy U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Callista Gingrich religious freedom human dignity
- Location: VATICAN CITY
- City: VATICAN CITY
- Country: Vatican City
- Topics: Religion/Belief,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001AZEN22V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the Vatican on Wednesday (October 2) in the shadow of a political crisis back home and criticised places where religious freedom is threatened by states with absolute power.
Pompeo, delivering a keynote speech at a Vatican conference singled out China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar as places where freedom of religion is not respected.
"Authoritarian regimes and autocrats will never accept the power higher than their own and that cause all sorts of assaults on human dignity", Pompeo said at the conference organised by the U.S. embassy to the Vatican.
"On the issues of human dignity and religious freedom, these issues that transcend everyday politics on the enduring struggle of the individual's right to believe and worship we must, and I know we will, march together".
Pompeo, who is due to meet Pope Francis on Thursday (October 3) morning, later visited the Sistine Chapel and other parts of the Vatican museums.
China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in remote Xinjiang that it describes as "vocational training centres" to stamp out extremism and give people new skills. The United Nations says at least 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained.
Pompeo's trip, which will also include a visit to his ancestral home in the rugged Abruzzo region northeast of Rome and stops in Montenegro, North Macedonia and Greece, has been overshadowed by an impeachment inquiry at home targeting President Donald Trump.
Democratic opponents have accused Trump of soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. election for his personal political benefit.
At issue is a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in coordination with U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Biden's son had served as a director for a Ukrainian gas company.
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and two other Democratic committee chairmen have accused Pompeo of "stonewalling" the impeachment inquiry, and called him a "fact witness" in the investigation, based on media reports that he had listened in on Trump's call with Zelenskiy.
Pompeo has not commented on Wall Street Journal report saying he took part in the phone call.
On Tuesday (October 1), he sternly objected to a move by the U.S. House of Representatives to obtain depositions from five current and former State Department officials as part of an impeachment inquiry.
(Production: Antonio Denti, Fabiano Franchitti) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None