c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Pope Benedict XVI called Tuesday (Nov. 13) for countries at war to uphold international law, urging the international community to apply current arms regulations to “newer and more sophisticated weapons.”

Benedict did not name countries, but the United States has been under heavy scrutiny in Europe for its perceived disregard for United Nations war conventions.

Speaking on the church’s annual World Day of Peace and quoting from the Vatican Constitution Gaudium et Spes, Benedict noted that “not everything automatically becomes permissible between hostile parties once war has regrettably begun.”

“As a means of limiting the devastating consequences of war as much as possible, especially for civilians, the international community has created international humanitarian law,” Benedict said, adding that “respect for that law must be considered binding on all peoples.”

Benedict made his appeal following a much-discussed Italian television documentary alleging that the United States “indiscriminately” used white phosphorus as a weapon against Iraqi insurgents during the battle for Fallujah.

The documentary, aired by RAI News 24 in November, alleged that the U.S. military targeted its use of white phosphorus at areas with heavy civilian concentrations, resulting in the gruesome deaths of hundreds.

Asked at a press conference whether the pope’s message on international law applied to the Iraq war, a papal spokesman, Cardinal Renato Martino, responded, “That’s correct.”

White phosphorus, a chemical that combusts on contact with oxygen, is typically employed to illuminate battle zones. When coming into contact with humans, the chemical burns through skin and muscle tissue to the bone and can be extinguished only by cutting off its air supply.

Critics also question whether the use of white phosphorus in Iraq violates a 1980 United Nations convention prohibiting the use of “incendiary” weapons on civilian targets. The United States has not signed that section of the convention as negotiations over it continue.

Martino, who presented Benedict’s message, expressed concern that negotiations over the convention on incendiary weapons had stalled, adding that “international humanitarian rights must remain important enough for the international community to uphold and cultivate with great attention.”

Benedict said international laws regulating weapons use “must be brought up to date by precise norms applicable to the changing scenarios of today’s armed conflicts and the use of ever newer and more sophisticated weapons.”

The U.S. has also come under heavy criticism amid recent reports detailing the CIA’s use of covert prisons in Europe as part of its “extraordinary rendition” program, which transfers suspects to countries not covered by the Geneva convention on torture for interrogation.

Asked if the pope was concerned about allegations of secret CIA prisons, Martino said the pope “is not condemning anybody but is inviting them to observe the Geneva Convention.”

The cardinal, however, denounced torture as “humiliation of the human person, whoever he is.”

Benedict’s 12-page reflection, titled “In Truth, Peace,” went beyond war weaponry to address a wide range of issues stoking conflict around the world, including Islamic terrorism.

“In analyzing the causes of the contemporary phenomenon of terrorism, consideration should be given not only to its political and social causes, but also to its deeper cultural religious and ideological motivations,” he said.

During a meeting with Muslim leaders in Cologne, Germany, last August, Benedict cited Islamic fundamentalism as a cause of terrorism, departing from John Paul II’s practice of regarding terrorism as an act driven by nihilism rather than faith.

He returned to that theme again in Tuesday’s appeal.

“Not only nihilism, but also religious fanaticism, today often labeled fundamentalism, can inspire and encourage terrorist thinking and activity,” Benedict said.

In an apparent reference to relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the pope noted improved conditions in “Palestine, the land of Jesus.” He praised “tentative steps forward along the path of peace.”

But he warned that signs of improved relations should not lead to “naive optimism.”

Benedict also called for the “institutional and operative renewal” of the U.N., which has come under heavy criticism in the wake of the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq.

“The United Nations must become a more efficient instrument for promoting the values of justice, solidarity and peace in the world,” the pope said.

Touching upon the issue of nuclear arms proliferation, Benedict called for “progressive and concerted disarmament” in countries whose governments “openly or secretly possess nuclear arms.”

MO/PH END RNS