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Haider Sees Pope While Thousands Protest
Austria's rightist leader and Governor of Carinthia Joerg Haider was received by Pope John Paul II in Rome Saturday as thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Rome in protest against his visit.
Haider and a 250-strong delegation from Carinthia in southern Austria were at the Vatican to officially present the pope with the region's gift of a Christmas tree, which is already standing in St. Peter's Square.
Each year, the pope receives a tree from a European region and Carinthia was chosen to bestow the millennium tree in 1997, when its governor was a member of Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's People's Party.
Meanwhile, in the streets outside, leftists, war partisans, students and Jewish groups staged various protests against the former leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party.
Organizers said that 5,000 had joined the student demonstration, although police said the number was closer to 1,500.
The Vatican, which has come under fire from some quarters for receiving the governor, has stressed that the audience was a " pastoral" affair during which the pope could impress upon his listeners the need to respect "human and Christian values."
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