ICC Almost Ready to Roll

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        Well, it was only a matter of time. The International Criminal Court (ICC) will soon be a grim reality. As reported by CNSNews.com (March 9, 2002) "The world's first permanent international criminal tribunal will almost certainly be created by the end of the year, campaigners said Friday. U.S. citizens will be subject to the court even though President Bush and Republican leaders in the Senate have condemned it." U.S. citizens will be subject to the ICC because Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute in December 2000. Just think of it as Big Bill’s farewell gift to his beloved country.

        CNSN observes that "Citizens of countries that have not signed the Rome Statute can also be tried before the court, but only if the alleged crimes occurred in a country that is a party to the treaty or (my emphasis) if the U.N. Security Council refers the case to the ICC." That’s a pretty big "or". And don’t doubt for a moment that the ICC’s jurisdiction will expand. I can already foresee attempted ICC prosecutions of U.S. citizens based on Internet "hate speech" (i.e., any statement offensive to homosexuals, abortionists or other certified victim groups) that originates here but is received in Europe.

        Under the Statute (approved back in 1998) all it takes is 60 countries to ratify the Statute and the ICC legally comes into existence. CNSNews reports that "This week, Mauritius, Macedonia and Cyprus ratified the treaty, becoming the 53rd, 54th and 55th countries to do so. Europe has led the push for the ICC, with nearly every EU country ratifying the Rome treaty." According CNSN, the last required vote should have been obtained by July of this year.

        The ICC will be headquartered in the Hague, Netherlands — the land of legalized euthanasia, abortion on demand, legalized heroin use and legalized prostitution. This is the haven of "human rights" to which the citizens of any nation will be hauled for trials based on "offenses" which have yet to be specified beyond vague categories, subject to almost infinite expansion. And the expansion is coming. Like any bureaucracy, the ICC will grow itself to gargantuan proportions.

        CNSN notes that "In testimony before the House International Relations Committee last week, U.S. at-large ambassador for war crimes Pierre-Richard Prosper said the ICC ‘lacks the essential safeguard to avoid a politicization of justice.’" Ah, but the ICC has the firm support of that master of international politics, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

        Sodano has been up to his neck in promoting the ICC since the original Rome conference in 1998. As reported by Zenit on June 17, 1998 "U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, currently in Rome for the Conference, had a private audience with the Holy Father to thank him for his support of this initiative. He also met with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, and Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Secretary for Relations with States. According to Vatican Spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls, the Secretary General explained to the Holy Father that the purpose of the court was to judge those crimes that most wound the conscience of the world: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes."

        Somehow I doubt the "explanation" included any warning that the ICC will undoubtedly expand the list of "crimes" it will prosecute, and that from the beginning of the ICC project there has been pressure (which sooner or later will be successful) to get the Court to prosecute such "crimes" as "enforced pregnancy" - i.e., failing to provide women with "access to reproductive rights", that is, abortion.

        On November 15, 2001, The Inland Register, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Spokane, reported that "Jesuit Father Robert Araujo, professor of the Gonzaga University School of Law, was honored recently by Pope John Paul II for his work as Vatican legal adviser at the United Nations and elsewhere. Father Araujo was given the silver Medal of the Current Year of the Pontificate, as well as a letter of commendation from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, at the behest of the pope. Father Araujo has been involved with the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which would be a permanent tribunal to try individuals for violations of international law, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggressive war."

        Notice the key phrase "was given the silver Medal of the Current Year of the Pontificate, as well as a letter of commendation from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, at the behest of the pope." Oh yes, I am sure that the Pope was just dying to give a silver medal to one of the lawyers who helped to fasten the ICC on the world’s back. The silver medal wasn’t Cardinal Sodano’s idea at all. No, the Pope just said one day: "You know, we should give that fellow Araujo a silver medal for his wonderful work in helping set up the ICC."

        It is Cardinal Sodano who steers the Vatican’s course on the ICC, as well as the Vatican’s course on the Message of Fatima. And that is precisely why the Church and the world are on the brink of an apocalypse.