The Vatican said today (October 17, 2012) that it will send a high-profile delegation to Syria -- including Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York -- to encourage a political solution to the war there that has resulted in the loss of more than 30,000 lives, according to the New York Times website.
"We cannot be mere spectators of a tragedy such as the one that is unfolding in Syria," the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told bishops in Rome.
On Pope Benedict XVI's orders, the seven prelates are expected to visit Syria "in the coming days," according to a Vatican statement.
The delegation is a rare diplomatic intervention for the papacy -- especially for a papacy in which several internal scandals have overshadowed foreign policy -- and represents an important role of Cardinal Dolan. Cardinal Dolan -- who has been nicknamed "the American Pope" -- has been the most influential Catholic Church spokesman to reject President Barack Obama's anti-Christian church policies, and is viewed by many theologians as being the first American who will become the Pope in Rome.
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