DHARAMSHALA, January 21: Pope Francis has denied cowing to Chinese pressure in not meeting the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the latter’s visit to Rome in December last year for the Nobel Summit.
“The usual protocol of the secretary of state is not to receive heads of state and high ranking personalities when they are in Rome for an international meeting,” the Pope told journalists on his return from Philippines.
The pontiff, without giving’s details, has said that a meeting between him and the exiled Tibetan leader will take place. “Some newspapers said that I did not meet with him out of fear of China. This is not true. He asked for an audience some time ago. A date has been fixed. But not for the moment. We are in contact,” the Associated Press quoted the Vatican head as saying.
The Tibetan leader, who is hugely popular around the world for his message of peace, religious tolerance and secular ethics, did not react to news reports about the Pope not meeting him for fear of upsetting China.
Responding to a question about the Vatican’s efforts for closer ties with China, the Pope said, “The Chinese are polite, and we are also polite. We are doing things step by step.”
The Chinese “know that I am ready to go there [China] or to receive [Chinese officials] at the Vatican,” he said.
Diplomatic relations between Vatican and China were cut off by Chairman Mao in 1951.
The Tibetan leader’s first association with the Vatican was in 1973 when he met Pope Paul VI in Vatican. Pope John Paul II, who held the papacy for 26 years, one of the longest in Vatican’s history, had met the Tibetan leader seven times between 1980 and 2003.
