The two Assange children accompanied their mother to the meeting.

Afterwards, she described the Holy Father as a "massive moral protection."

Stella Assange said they spoke about her husband's "day-to-day suffering in prison, the cruelty of being away from family and the strain of not knowing how long he'll be incarcerated."

Francis is aware of the "urgency" of the situation, she says. He knows her husband's legal team is expecting his appeal against the extradition to be heard this summer.

Julian Assange has spent four years in London's Belmarsh prison. He faces up to 175 years jail on espionage charges in the US in relation to military and diplomatic cables he published on WikiLeaks.

Pope Francis has been following the case and understands the situation is critical, Stella Assange says.

"We discussed the way in which political prosecutions use processes to prolong incarceration and that Julian is not convicted of any crime, that he's been in the wing of his prison the longest, but he's there without formally being a prisoner. [Francis] has seen other cases like this before."

Stella Assange says Francis is a "moral authority that transcends politics" who "has provided great comfort to our family".

She says other Church figures had spoken to Francis about the Assange case.

Freedom of the press

Throughout his pontificate, Francis has consistently defended press freedom.

He considers it "an important indicator of the state of a country's health".

He often expresses solidarity with prisoners too, and has spoken about long prison sentences being like a "hidden death sentence".

It's thought possible that Francis may be able to use his good relationship with President Joe Biden to influence the US authorities over Assange's plight.

Assange supporters say his WikiLeaks actions exposed important information about conditions in the US military's Guantanamo Bay camp and the army's conduct during the 2003 Iraq War.

Prosecutors allege that he pushed Chelsea Manning, an intelligence analyst, to obtain classified diplomatic cables and military files. WikiLeaks later published these, putting lives at risk.

The Vatican has also come in for unfavourable Wikileaks attention. In 2010 WikiLeaks released cables showing diplomats describing the Vatican leadership in an unfavourable light.

Then in 2019 WikiLeaks released information about the Order of Malta's public battle with Francis.

Stella Assange, a lawyer, married her husband in prison in 2022. They have two children.

Source

• The Tablet

Wikileaks revealed astronaut Edgar Mitchell wrote several emails to US presidential staffer John Podesta.

In them he said aliens want to help people, but fear our violent tendencies.

Mitchell, whose email signature said he was the "6th man to walk on the Moon," cited an impending space war.

He also claimed the Vatican knows about alien life.

Podesta was serving as counselor to President Barack Obama during the exchange.

He then left the position to become chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

"Because the War in Space race is heating up, I felt you should be aware of several factors as you and I schedule our Skype talk," Mitchell (who died in February this year) told Podesta

He went on to mention a "non-violent" alien species that wishes to share "zero point energy" with the world.

Terri Mansfield, who describes herself online as "the Director of the ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Peace Task Force" is also mentioned in one of the emails.

Referred to as Mitchell's "Catholic colleague," the leaked message said she would attend the meeting with Podesta.

Her purpose would be "to bring us up to date on the Vatican's awareness of ETI."

On her website, Mansfield describes ETIs as being "the highest form of intelligence working directly with God."

Mitchell warned Podesta that the "nonviolent ETI" want to help share zero point energy (ZPE) with Earth.

He added the aliens "will not "tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space".

Quantum physics defines ZPE as a vacuum energy. It utilizes an energy that exists in molecules even at near absolute zero temperature.

One study said if ZPE were harnessed it could allow an astronaut-piloted spacecraft to travel to Mars in days, rather than years.

Podesta said earlier this year that he had convinced Clinton to disclose UFO files.

Source

• RT News
• Image: Daily Express

The WikiLeaks release of State Department cables revealed that American Cardinal Bernard Law is actively working in Vatican-Vietnam relations. His "personal involvement" helped confirm the December 2009 meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet.

"It took a visit to Vietnam last week by American Cardinal Bernard Law to finalize arrangements to allow the visit to go forward, according to a person close to the cardinal," reports a secret December 4, 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

The cable, signed by U.S. Ambassador Miguel Diaz, says that Cardinal Law told the embassy's deputy mission chief that he discussed bilateral relations and the president's visit directly with the Vietnamese.

"In these discussions, the Vietnamese expressed little interest in formal diplomatic relations but considerable interest in ensuring the already-announced visit would go forward," the State Department cable says. "The Cardinal did not reveal whether he obtained any concessions from the Vietnamese in order to confirm the visit, but that seems likely."

A notation in the December 2009 cable advises to "strictly protect" Cardinal Law's identity.

The cardinal's interactions with U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi are also noted in a confidential cable from the Hanoi embassy, dated November 25, 2009.

During Cardinal Law's visit for the 350th anniversary of Catholicism in the country, he discussed with U.S. officials the proposed visit of the Vietnamese president to the Vatican. He also discussed the possible resignation of Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi, which the Pope later accepted in May 2010.

The archbishop faced health issues and became a controversial figure because of his efforts to recover church property confiscated by the communist government.

Full Article: CNA

The statement was made in an unclassified diplomatic cable, and is one of many documents made public in the latest release of Wikileaks documents.

"Despite a week of media speculation suggesting that German Cardinal and close John Paul II collaborator Joseph Ratzinger was moving close to a majority of votes, it appears that he lacks enough support to achieve the required two-thirds, given strong opposition from factions that see Ratzinger as too rigid and jealous of Rome's prerogatives," the cable stated.

"Some of these forces appear to be uniting around retired Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, as a standard-bearer for the initial votes that will test the strength of the differing groups, though he is not expected to be a viable candidate."

"Based on these initial showings, the cardinals in subsequent votes are expected to shift to other candidates who reflect the Ratzinger or Martini views, but who offer better hope of garnering support from other groups. Italian Cardinals Ruini or Scola, and Argentinian Cardinal Bergolio would be suitable to the Ratzinger camp, while Milan's Archbishop Cardinal Tettamanzi or Brazilian Cardinal Hummes could pull the support of the anti-Ratzinger groups," the cable stated.

Warning that the race to the papacy was very difficult to pick, the US embassy cable seemed to favour the prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos.

Wikileaks has also been criticised by a retired Filipino bishop.

A retired prelate yesterday warned the public not to take information from Wikileaks, a website that publishes classified data, as absolute truth.

Wikileaks earlier revealed that the Holy See pressured the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines to remain neutral in the controversy surrounding alleged fraud during the 2005 national elections.

"I can say for certainty because I was there all along. The Vatican was not even mentioned. This is the first time I heard about it," Archbishop Oscar Cruz, former head of the bishops' conference.

"One should also be perceptive [when] reading it," he said.

Cruz said "WikiLeaks has a lot of wonderful things but you don't take it hook, line and sinker."

Sources

• Catholic Culture
• ucanews.com
• Wikileaks Cable Release