Catholic Primate Affected Return of Catholics to Council of Christians and Jews

John Cardinal Heenan, Primate of the Roman Catholics in England, revealed today that he had personally effected the recent resumption of British Catholic representation on the Council of Christians and Jews after a hiatus of 20 years. Cardinal Heenan, speaking at a luncheon of the Foreign Press Association, made the disclosure in response to a question by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent. The 65-year-old Archbishop of Westminster said that he was “from the very beginning dissatisfied” with the Holy See’s ordering Catholics off the interfaith council. “My investigations showed at the time that Rome had assumed that the Council was against church schools,” he recalled. On acceding to his current post, “this issue was uppermost in my mind.” and he informed the Vatican that Catholic absence from the Council “is being interpreted as anti-Semitism, which is not only untrue but actually harmful.” “As you know,” the Primate told the press group, “the Vatican does not like to change things in a hurry. But I told them that I was returning to the Council of Christians and Jews and that ‘the next time I come to Rome I will have added the joint presidency of the Council to my offices.’ And so I did.” Cardinal Heenan noted that “There was never any objection on the part of the Holy See when my return became an accomplished fact.”