Pope Calls for Religious Freedom In Iraq --And Venezuela

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Zenit has the goods. B16 met with Iraq's foreign minister yesterday and commented on the new constitution then. He also had this to say about Hugo Chavez when the new Venezuelan ambassador to the Holy See presented his credentials.
I very much hope that the present difficulties in church-state relations will be dissipated and that there will be a return to a fruitful collaboration in continuity with the noble Venezuelan tradition.
The Pope went on to ask
that the government respect the freedom proper to the Church to carry out its mission in Venezuela. Governments of states have nothing to fear from the action of the Church, which in the exercise of its freedom seeks only to carry out its own religious mission and to contribute to the spiritual progress of each country," he said. Freedom to serve The Holy Father continued: "The Church, which cannot fail to proclaim and defend the dignity of the human person in his integrity and openness to divine transcendence, calls for the capacity to dispose, in a stable way, of the indispensable space and necessary means to fulfill her mission and humanizing service. The Church wants freedom solely to offer a valid service of collaboration with all public and private entities concerned with the good of man.
Then, with an elegant but slightly cruel smile, he pulled out his Walther PPK 7.65 mm and . . . No, wait, that was a different religious leader.