Vatican City - Pope John Paul told the new US envoy to the Vatican yesterday that abortion was a "deadly anarchy" that risked subverting the concept of justice cherished by America's founding fathers. In his first address to the new ambassador, Ms Corinne "Lindy" Boggs (81), the Pope did not shy away from the issue that has been among the most divisive between the Vatican and the administration of President Clinton.
"The United States was founded on the conviction that an inalienable right to life was a self-evident moral truth, fidelity to which was a primary criterion of social justice," the Pope told Ms Boggs, the oldest ambassador ever to be accredited to the Vatican.
Ms Boggs, a practising Catholic whose looks belie her years, succeeds Mr Raymond Flynn, a former Boston mayor who caused controversy in Washington because of his outspoken statements, some of them critical of the Clinton administration's policy.