Vatican City, Oct 23, 2008 / 08:47 am
Pope John Paul II is a Pontiff remembered for helping bring about the fall of the Iron Curtain, but less well-known is the fact that on October 16, 1978 the late Pope intervened in a confrontation between Argentina and Chile to establish peace. To recall the occasion, Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to the archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The message, which was made public today, was sent by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone in the Pope's name, to Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio S.J., archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The original dispute between Argentina and Chile involved three islands that each nation desired to claim so that they could have rights over the territorial seas. Argentina desired to say that it had claims to the Pacific, while Chile wanted territorial rights to the Atlantic.
With the two South American nations about to declare war on Christmas Eve of 1978, Pope John Paul II intervened, sending a special delegate, Cardinal Antonio Samore to resolve the dispute. After years of negotiations, the governments of Argentina and Chile agreed to divide the islands in a way that neutralized their claims to territorial oceanic rights.