This Article is From Dec 13, 2014

Pope Declines to Meet Dalai Lama, Reports Say

Pope Declines to Meet Dalai Lama, Reports Say

Pope Francis prays during his general audience at St Peter's square on December 10 at the Vatican. (Agence France-Presse)

London: A gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates opened in Rome on Friday, overshadowed by a dispute with the Vatican over reports that Pope Francis had refused to grant an audience to the Dalai Lama, the 1989 laureate, for fear of offending China.

The pope's action, reported by news agencies and by the Dalai Lama's followers, seemed to represent a further success for China in its efforts to isolate the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who is regarded as one of Beijing's principal political nemeses.

The laureates' gathering was initially set to take place in Cape Town, South Africa, in October, but the government of President Jacob G. Zuma, which has close economic ties with China, refused to grant the 79-year-old Dalai Lama a visa.

The action provoked a boycott by other Nobel laureates. Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, the South African winner of the 1984 prize for his battle against apartheid, responded to Zuma's action by saying he was "ashamed to call this lickspittle bunch my government."

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, was quoted in news reports Thursday as saying that "Pope Francis obviously holds the Dalai Lama in very high regard, but he will not be meeting any of the Nobel laureates."

But, the spokesman said, the pope would send a video message to the conference.

The Dalai Lama was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as saying Thursday that he had been turned down for an audience "because it might create inconveniences."

Francis, like his predecessor Benedict XVI, is seeking a warming of ties with the Chinese authorities, which broke off relations in 1951 and set up a branch of the Roman Catholic Church outside the Vatican's control.

The Dalai Lama has not had a papal audience since an encounter with Benedict in 2006.

The Rome gathering was scheduled for two days after the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was presented in Oslo to Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian campaigner for the rights of children.

In their acceptance speeches, both referred to earlier laureates such as Nelson Mandela, who was awarded the 1993 prize jointly with F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's last white president, but neither of them alluded to the Dalai Lama.

The laureates' canceled meeting in Cape Town had been supposed to celebrate Mandela shortly before the first anniversary of his death.

"It was very disturbing for all of us," said Jody Williams, who shared the 1997 prize for her efforts to outlaw land mines. "We hoped to be able to celebrate the legacy of Nelson Mandela, and it didn't work out for political reasons, which is very tragic," Agence France-Presse quoted her as saying.

© 2014, The New York Times News Service
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