(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 30 - A top Vatican official on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump's administration of using Pope Francis with an event staged during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Rome.
    Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, answered in the affirmative when asked by ANSA if the US unilaterally organizing a symposium on religious freedom at its embassy to the Holy See amounted to exploitation of the pope in the final stages of the US presidential campaign.
    "Yes, that is precisely why the pope will not meet American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo," Gallagher said.
    During his visit, Pompeo is set to have talks with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, but not Pope Francis.
    Vatican sources had said it was felt a meeting with such a senior figure in Trump's administration would be inappropriate so close to the elections.
    Pompeo and Parolin are expected to discuss the Vatican's relations with China, after the former accused the Holy See of being too soft on Beijing and was critical of the likelihood that a historic agreement with the Chinese authorities on the nomination of bishops will be renewed.
    Pompeo called on "every faith leader to find the courage to confront religious persecution against their own communities, and those of other faith" during a speech in Rome on Wednesday.
    He told the symposium: "nowhere is religious freedom under attack more than in China. This because, like all Communist regimes, the Chinese Communist Party considers itself the ultimate moral authority. An ever more repressive CCP, frightened by its own lack of democratic legitimacy, is working day and night to extinguish the lamp of freedom...above all religious freedom, on a horrible scale".
    Parolin, who attended the symposium along with Gallagher, was asked if the Holy See was irked by Pompeo's recent criticism of its China policy in the conservative Catholic journal First Things.
    "I should not say irritation, but rather surprise for this statement that we did not expect even though we have known for some time the position of Trump and Secretary Pompeo in particular," the cardinal replied.
    "And surprise because a visit to Rome was already scheduled in which Pompeo was set to meet the leaders of the Holy See, and we deemed that the most opportune and suitable seat to talk about these things, and we will do so: we will meet tomorrow and there will be a means of discussing these issues".
    Parolin said the symposium had been seen as being linked to domestic US politics.
    "This interpretation has been given...I do not have proof but it's a thought that you can make," he said, highlighting the need to leave the pope out of the US election campaign because the issue of Chinese bishops "is an inter-church issue".
    Parolin said Pompeo had asked to see the pope but "the Pope said clearly that we don't receive political figures during the election campaign," ans stressing that a secretary of state usually meets his counterpart, in this case Parolin. (ANSA).