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PAGE 14 — The Georgia Bulletin, July 23, 1987 Italian Court Invalidates Warrants For Three Vatican Bankers BY JOHN THAVIS ROME (NC) — The highest Italian court has invalidated arrest warrants issued last February for U.S. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus and two other officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a 1982 banking scandal, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. The ruling July 17 by the Court of Cassation, Italy’s equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court, specified that its decision was definitive, with no chance for further appeal. It overturned a ruling by a lower appeals court and ap parently ended the possibility that criminal charges would be brought against the three Vatican bank officials. “I’m happy, and I still have faith in justice,” Archbishop Marcinkus told National Catholic News Service from the Vatican. He refused to discuss the behavior of Italian magistrates in the case, saying, “There's no use getting in to polemics at the moment.” The archbishop said he would have to wait for official notification of the court’s decision to determine whether all the legal issues were closed and whether he could leave the Vatican without fear of arrest in Italy. Asked if he might then take a vacation, he said: “I take my vacation whenever it comes. But I usually stay around here, anyway.” The reasons for the court’s decision were not immediate ly made public. Investigating magistrates had issued the warrants after a five-year probe into the $1.2 billion collapse of Banco Am- brosiano in 1982. The warrants alleged that the Vatican bank, known formally as the Institute for Religious Works, knew or should have known that it was a party to fraudulent deals that caused the Banco Ambrosiano debts. Named in the warrants were Archbishop Marcinkus, Vatican bank president, and two bank administrators, Pellegrino de Strobel and Luigi Mennini. The Vatican has always maintained that the Institute for Religious Works was an unwitting victim of a hidden finan cial scheme hatched by then-Banco Ambrosiano President Roberto Calvi. Calvi died in mysterious circumstances * shortly before his bank’s collapse. A Vatican tribunal earlier this month rejected a request by Italian authorities to extradite the bank officials. They •v have been living in Vatican City, a separate state within Italy. The tribunal said that because a treaty between the Holy See and Italy rules out “interference” by Italy in central church agencies, extradition of the three was impossible. It also called the charges in the warrants "conjectural." Pope Reported Planning 1988 Visit To Southern Africa HARARE, Zimbabwe (NC) — Pope John Paul II is to visit several countries in southern Africa in September 1988, but South Africa is not included because of the political situation and black displeasure over the pope's meeting with President Pieter W. Botha in 1984, according to reports. The agenda includes Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, all of which border, or are surrounded by, South Africa. Pope John Paul was invited to the region by the Inter- Regional Meeting of the Bishops in Southern Africa, a southern African bishops’ conference official said. The organization has its headquarters in Harare. At the Vatican, a papal spokesman said trip an nouncements, by Vatican policy, come first from bishops in the countries to be visited. South Africa is off the list because the region’s bishops decided “the time is not opportune,” Bishop Wilfred Napier of Kokstad, South Africa, the bishops’ conference chair man, said July 13. Bishop Napier was quoted by United Press International CAMERA i COUNTRY . 1 USA* * ■YOUR FULL SERVICE CAMERA STORE* 8610 Roswell Rd. Loehmann’s Plaza At Huntcliff CALL US TODAYII 998-1410 We take trade-ins Camera Repairs Quality Film Processing We Buy Used Equipment Darkroom Supplies Friendly Service Video Transfers Passport Photos 2 For 1 Prints Everyday! Your Film -I- Processing Headquarters! ***** FINEBAKEw^RESDttJRANT Best Quality French & Continental Cakes & Pastries Serving Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner 9-10:30 am 11-2:30 pm 5:30-9:30 pm Buy a Dinner and get the 2nd one of equal or less cost for half price. Good thru Aug. 31. ’87 Loehmann’s Plaza at Executive Park 2484 Briarcliff Rd. Atlanta, Georgia 30329 320-9522 We Do Carry Out ». c , ... , -j....) as saying the meeting with Botha and his wife, Elize, at the Vatican contributed to the decision against inviting the pon tiff to the white minority-ruled nation. “There was a lot of anger about that visit,” he said, ac cording to the news report, which was confirmed by a con ference official. "Black South Africans still ask why the pope agreed to meet Botha, and their feelings played a role in deciding the visit would not be opportune.” The Vatican said the pope's meetings with political leaders of all persuasions allows the Holy See to make its viewpoint known on issues. Two South African newspapers editorialized that the pope should visit their country. The Johannesburg Star said the pope's refusal to visit was a mistake. Bishop Napier also said that 80 percent of South Africa's more than two million Catholics are black and are "suffer ing terrible repression at the hands of the security forces who would be asked to guard the pope.” “We felt that would be incongruous and unacceptable in the present situation in South Africa,” he said. On June 11, 1984, Pope John Paul met with President Botha in a controversial audience. Moments after that meeting, the Vatican issued a criticism of apartheid, as South Africa's system of racial discrimination is called. “Such policies have been judged contrary to the Christian principle of equal dignity of all men," the statement said. Brunetti & Mazzetta, F*.C.‘ ATTORNEYS AT LAW 404-521-1808 Suite 2308 Harris Tower; 233 Peachtree St.. Atlanta. Ga 30303 General Practice Corporation. Contracts. Business. Personal Injury. Real Estate. Wills. Immigration, Domestic Relations. International Law. Italian. French & Spanish spoken. “He should be offering black citizens a message of hope, feeding them spiritual strength,” the Star said. “In effect. South African Catholics — 80 percent of whom are black — are being rejected because of the sins of others,” the Star said. The Sowetan. South Africa's largest-circulation black newspaper, said Pope John Paul should change his mind and visit South Africa to - concentrate the world's focus on our problems. ” “If the pope were to come here, on a pilgrimage to show the Vatican's abhorrence to oppression of the poor, the peo ple would be prepared to form a human phalanx to protect him," the Sowetan said. GEORGIA BULLETIN Ads Bring Results! NICK HOMI REPAIR JguiJeTI Piastor. Stucco. 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