Informed sources asserted here today that any conclusions that the ultra-Conservatives in the Vatican had achieved any success in their efforts to dilute the Ecumenical Council draft declaration exonerating the Jewish people from the charge of crucifying Jesus would be erroneous.
These sources said it had been obvious, even before publication last month of an article by Bishop Luigi Carli of Segni, Italy–justifying the deicide charge against the Jewish people–that the ultra-Conservatives would make a final desperate stand against the pro-Jewish draft which received an overwhelming vote of preliminary approval at the third Ecumenical Council session last November.
The disclosure that the draft had been drastically revised by an ad hoc commission of four prelates at the Vatican, headed by Bishop Carli, surprised Jewish observers because Bishop Carli’s extreme stand had never been an official position of the Catholic Church.
It was suggested that the fact that Bishop Carli was selected to be a member of the ad hoc commission might be connected with Pope Paul VI’s concern over frequent complaints by the ultra-Conservative prelates of being “majority-ized” by the Ecumenical Council votes.
It was emphasized here that the established procedural control of the Secretariat for Christian Unity, a concilliary commission, on the declaration on Jews, was unaffected by the activities of the ad hoc commission. However, competent sources said that the possibility should not be excluded that Conservative pressures might influence the text of the declaration in its final procedural stages. A final vote on the declaration is expected after the Ecumenical Council convenes in September.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
