Senator Bernie Sanders leaving the Vatican on Saturday. He was at the Vatican for a conference on social and economic issues.Credit Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — For a while, Senator Bernie Sanders’s Roman holiday seemed less than it was cracked up to be.
Immediately after his campaign announced that he would leave the United States for a “high-level meeting” at the Vatican, questions arose about the wisdom of the trip. The critical New York primary was just days away. One official of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which hosted the conference Mr. Sanders would attend, even suggested he had fished for the invitation.
Most critically, there seemed to be little chance that Mr. Sanders would meet the Vatican resident whose name he frequently invokes. Pope Francis, it turned out, would not be visiting the conference of the academy, an in-house think tank of the Vatican.
Politically, a trip to Rome without a meeting with Francis would have been a blunder, Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Fordham University who is teaching at Yale, had said on Friday. “The point is to make sure you are going to get an audience with the pope,” he said. “Anything short of an actual visit will probably be a mistake.”
Mr. Sanders continued to hold out hope. “I certainly would be delighted and proud if I had the opportunity to meet with him,” he said before leaving New York.
He also had two things going for him: his host, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, an Argentine who is the chancellor of the academy and happens to be close to Francis, and his hotel room, also close to the pope. Mr. Sanders was to stay in a second-floor room at Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where Francis keeps his residence.
“So it won’t be difficult to find the pope,” the bishop said last week, seeming to hint at something.
On Thursday, the day before the conference, a Vatican spokesman appeared to end all speculation, saying, “There won’t be a meeting with the Holy Father.”
Bishop Sánchez Sorondo dismissed the statement as “Roman gossip.”
But final word, it seemed, came Friday afternoon in the form of a handwritten letter from the pope apologizing to conference attendees for his absence.
“I will keep them all in my prayers and good wishes, and send them my heartfelt thanks for their participation,” he wrote. “May the Lord bless you. Fraternally, Franciscus.”
Around 5:30 p.m. Friday, the conference’s business ended and Mr. Sanders made an appointment for dinner at the Casa Santa Marta with his foreign policy adviser, Jeffrey D. Sachs, the economist and a fellow conference participant.
Mr. Sanders and his wife, Jane, sat with Mr. Sachs and his wife, Sonia, for a soup and buffet dinner, where they were joined by Bishop Sánchez Sorondo and Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, the pope’s right-hand man and one of the Vatican’s top power players.
“It was a wide-ranging conversation,” Mr. Sachs said. “It was about issues of the church and its history, about Honduras and foreign policy.”
But the most important words occurred in the middle of dinner, when a personal secretary for Francis arrived with the news Mr. Sanders had been hoping for, Mr. Sachs said.
If Mr. Sanders were in the foyer of the Casa Santa Marta at 6 a.m. the next day, he would be able to speak briefly with Francis as the pope headed to the airport for his Saturday trip to Greece, where the pope would be addressing the migrant crisis.
So early Saturday morning, Mr. Sanders stood in the marble foyer, which looks out onto a large cobblestone drive just inside the Vatican walls. Joining him were his wife, Mr. Sachs and his wife and Bishop Sánchez Sorondo, the senator’s de facto Vatican fixer.
The pope, speaking to reporters on his plane later in the day, described the meeting. “This morning when I was leaving, Senator Sanders was there,” he said, adding, “He knew I was leaving at that time, and he had the courtesy to greet me.”
No photos of the encounter were permitted, but Mr. Sachs said the senator was delighted all the same. He was beaming as he left the guesthouse, and celebrated the informal audience with a victory lap of sorts in St. Peter’s Basilica along with Mr. Sachs and the bishop, passing Bernini’s Baldacchino, a monumental bronze canopy over the papal altar, and Michelangelo’s Pietà.
Aware that his every statement is parsed for deeper meaning, Francis said he was simply being polite, not political.
“I shook his hand and nothing more,” he said. “If someone thinks that greeting someone means getting involved in politics,” he added, laughing, “I recommend that he find a psychiatrist!”
But the candidate was excited to talk about his coveted souvenir.
“I conveyed to him my great admiration for the extraordinary work that he is doing all over the world in demanding that morality be part of our economy,” Mr. Sanders told reporters aboard the plane as it rushed him back to the campaign in New York.
Sean Kelly has accused the PSNI of ‘political policing’. Picture by Hugh Russell
SEAN Kelly, the only person convicted over the Shankill bombing, has claimed he a victim of “political policing” in the wake of his recent arrest over the murder of Conor McKee in north Belfast.
The 42-year-old, who was convicted for his part in the 1993 IRA bomb atrocity, last night revealed he had met with the dead man’s family to tell them he played no part in his death.
Kelly was arrested at his home in north Belfast last week and questioned about Mr McKee’s murder. He was later released without charge.
In his only interview since his arrest the Ardoyne republican claimed he had was a the victim of “political policing” and reaffirmed his support for the peace process.
He claimed he is being singled out for attention by elements within the PSNI opposed to the peace process and believes his arrest is connected to attempts to have his early release licence revoked.
“They are trying to create a pattern, create a hype around it, that if they do go for it in their view they have justification,” he said.
His solicitor Seamus Delaney confirmed on Tuesday night he is considering legal action and has written to PSNI chief constable George Hamilton.
The solicitor said no evidence was put to his client during five interviews at Musgrave Street PSNI station last week.
Mr McKee (31) was blasted with a shotgun in the bedroom of his parents home in Glenpark Street in Oldpark in January in a suspected paramilitary attack.
He suffered from a heroin addiction and was on bail for drug offences the time of his death.
Kelly was released from prison in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement after being jailed for life for his part in the Shankill Road bomb in October 1993 which claimed the lives of nine civilians.
The dead included: John Frizzel (63), George Williamson (63), Gillian Williamson (49), Sharon McBride (29), Michael Morrison (27), Evelyn Baird (27), Michelle Baird (7), Leanne Murray (13) and Wilma McKee (38).
Thomas Begley, an IRA man who was with Kelly when the bomb went off prematurely. also died in the blast.
In 2005 Kelly had his early release licence revoked and was returned to prison after claims he was involved in rioting. Sinn Féin insisted he was trying to stop trouble.
He has also been arrested several times in recent years.
He was questioned in 2013 after a teenager was shot in Ardoyne and last year was arrested about the murder of former IRA man Kevin McGuigan in east Belfast.
On each occasion he was released without charge.
Speaking on Tuesday, Kelly revealed his has met with Conor McKee’s family who he said told him they were “disgusted” at his arrest.
“I have also spoken to the McKee family and they fully accept that I had no involvement whatsoever in their son’s killing,” he said.
The republican believes he is being deliberately singled out and claimed “there is a clear anti-peace process element operating within the PSNI”.
“This is also being used by elements within the PSNI in order to create a crisis in the peace process and tensions in the local community,” he said.
“Questions remain, who really is pulling the strings?
“As recently experienced not a shred of evidence was produced during questioning.”
He said his treatment raises questions.
“It’s political policing at its worst and there are more questions than answers,” he said.
“This is a complete and utter onslaught on me personally and the process.
“It’s bigger than me, I am just a pawn in this and that’s my full view on it.”
The north Belfast man said he is a strong supporter of the peace process.
“I have been a defender of the peace process since I was released from jail and this is well known in republican communities and everybody knows my position.”
“My position on the peace process has seen me rearrested and returned to jail in 2005. That was also used as a tool and mechanism against the republican movement.”
During a 2013 commemoration for Thomas Begley Kelly said he was “truly sorry for the loss of life and the injuries suffered that day and the sufferings the families have endured”.
After his recent arrest unionists called for his early release licence to be revoked.
Kelly believes any focus on the bomb is being “used as a political football to create difficulties in the peace process”.
“The PSNI approach is not about investigating killings or getting the truth for the families affected,” he said.
“They don’t care about the families, they are trying to create a focus on me.”
Kelly said he will continue to work for republican ex prisoners and the “wider republican family” and said he remains “very strong and will not be deterred” by recent events.
The father-of-five said the continued attention and regular arrests have a negative impact on his family “whose lives are turned upside down each time I am targeted”.
His solicitor Seamus Delaney revealed he has three other clients that the PSNI have asked to present themselves for questioning about the killing of Mr McKee.
They have declined on the solicitor’s advice.
“Sean Kelly was not given that opportunity,” he said.
“There is no more evidence against him than there was against the other three which is why they were not arrested.
“He was arrested simply because of his profile.”
Mr Delaney said the PSNI had proof that his client was not involved in the McKee murder prior to his arrest.
“The police had in their possession for weeks solid concrete proof that Sean Kelly was not involved in this because they seized the CCTV from his place of work which shows Sean at work,” he said.
He also believes attempts may be made to revoke his clients licence.
“I am in no doubt there is a pattern and that pattern is designed to revoke Sean’s licence.”
In a statement on Tuesday night, Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway, said: “In the immediate aftermath of Conor’s murder we said we believed it was a drugs-related attack and that republican paramilitaries featured among our main lines of enquiry.
“That remains the position and we will go where the evidence takes us.
“I would again appeal to anyone with information about Conor’s murder to come forward to police.”
Malachy McAllister marching with the United Irish Counties in the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Former parade chairman John Dunleavy is in the foreground. Photo by Dominick Totino.
The congressional effort to prevent the deportation of Malachy McAllister is being ramped up this week as the Belfast man enters the final two weeks before he must report for “removal” from the United States.
Private members bills are being drawn up in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate on behalf of the Belfast man who lives in New Jersey, but is a partner in a bar and restaurant business in Manhattan.
Congressman Joe Crowley, speaking on the Adrian Flannelly Irish Radio show on Saturday, indicated that legislators in Congress would be stepping up their efforts to secure an American life for McAllister, who is the father of a four-year-old U.S. citizen son.
New Yorker Crowley, and Representatives Peter King of New York and New Jersey’s Bill Pascrell, have already written letters on McAllister’s behalf to Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, and the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sarah Saldaña.
Crowley told Flannelly that he had also made direct contact with Saldaña’s office on behalf of McAllister, who fled Belfast with his wife and then four children in 1988, this after loyalists attacked his Belfast home, firing 26 bullets into the living room.
Over the twenty years that he has lived in the United States McAllister, who lost his wife Bernadette to cancer in 2004, has pleaded for asylum on two occasions and both times was denied.
However, support from leading political figures, not least Senator Bob Menendez in New Jersey, has resulted in McAllister being able to remain in the U.S. on a year-to-year basis.
Speaking on the Flannelly show, Rep. Crowley, a Democrat whose district spans Queens and the Bronx, said that he was of the view that if evidence that has since surfaced – in a report on loyalist violence and security forces collusion compiled by Sir Desmond De Silva – was now presented on McAllister’s behalf, he would be deemed eligible for political asylum.
McAllister has been ordered to present himself at the Department of Homeland Security offices in Newark on Monday, April 25 for a process known as “surrender for removal.”
He has been instructed to bring “a small travel bag.”
CAPITOL HILL. Wednesday, April 13, 2016—Coca Cola, the massive soft-drinks company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is facing an upcoming fair employment Resolution regarding its operations in Israel-Palestine. Coca Cola’s annual shareholders’ meeting is in Atlanta on April 27, where the company will be faced with a Resolution on the Holy Land Principles: a corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Palestine-Israel— based on the highly effective Mac Bride Principles for Northern Ireland. The Holy Land Principles are pro-Jewish, pro-Palestinian and pro-company. The Principles do not call for quotas, reverse discrimination, divestment, disinvestment or boycotts. The Principles do not take any position on solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The Principles do not try to tell the Palestinians or the Israelis what to do. The Holy Land Principles only try to get Coca Cola and the other companies to sign the Holy Land Principles. Last year, three American companies — Corning, GE and Intel— tried to get the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) to exclude the Holy Land Principles resolution from their 2015 Proxy Materials. However, the SEC ruled in favor of the Holy Land Principles. The SEC is a federal agency of the United States Government. One of the SEC’s main responsibilities is to protect investors. And the fact that the SEC has ruled in favor of the Holy Land Principles is proof positive that the Holy Land Principles are intrinsically valid, eminently reasonable and inherently fair. Fr. Sean Mc Manus—President of the Washington-based Holy Land Principles and Irish National Caucus — said : “ Coca Cola in its ‘Statement Against Shareowner Proposal Regarding Holy Land Principles, ’ rather lamely argues that ‘Endorsing these principles for one geographic area could risk undermining the universality of our own Human Rights Policy. We believe our policies work best when they can be applied throughout our entire enterprise.’ Well with all due respect, I think that’s a bit like responding to the urgent call ‘Black Lives Matter’ by saying all lives matter. People see through that dodge, that evasion, that dissembling.” Fr. Mc Manus explained: “American companies doing business in Northern Ireland initially tried such evasive tactics, including Coca Cola. But eventually they saw the light. Eventually 116 companies signed the Mac Bride Principles— including, to its credit, Coca Cola. So why would Coca Cola, or any American company now balk at signing the Holy Land Principles? Fr. Mc Manus continued: “Isn’t it truly remarkable that until we launched the Holy Land Principles, on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2012, this issue had never been raised before in the corporate boardrooms. Surely, something was very odd about that? How can it be explained, given the fact that SRI groups and faith-based organizations were filing Resolutions by the boat-load on every conceivable issue? This surely was the elephant in the (board) room! One cannot ask American companies doing business in the Holy Land a more important or existential question than one about their fair employment practices. Therefore, the Holy Land Principles are filling a vacuum that was crying out to be filled—indeed, playing a prophetic role. That is why our campaign — like our Mac Bride Principles campaign — will prevail in the end because there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. We respectfully ask all Coca Cola investors to vote for the Holy Land Principles resolution.” Fr. Sean Mc Manus President Holy Land Principles,Inc.
The Second Annual AOH Division 21 Horseshoe Tournament
Location:
Breezy Point Fire House/Main Ball Field
Each team will be a 2 Person team – come with a friend or be
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$30 per person
Includes Tournament, Unlimited
BBQ and Beverages.
Sponsor a Box! Only $75 for a Box Sponsorship.
