Msgr Hilarion Capucci, convicted in Israel in 1974 for smuggling arms to Palestinian terrorists, says he “hopes” to return to Jerusalem next year. He coupled that wish with a series of anti-Israel statements in an interview published in La Domenica Del Corriere, the weekly magazine of the newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
The much interviewed Capucci, who still styles himself “Bishop of Jerusalem,” said, “I was condemned to 12 years of imprisonment and according to the law I can return a free man after nine.” His 12-year sentence was commuted by President Ephraim Katzir of Israel in 1977 on the personal intervention of Pope Paul VI.
The Vatican promised at the time that Capucci would not be allowed to return to the Middle East, that he would not involve himself in politics and would never be permitted to engage in activities “detrimental to the State of Israel.”
But Capucci apparently views his expulsion from the Middle East as an “exile” with a time limit. He has returned to the region several times, in violation of the Vatican’s pledge. He used the La Domenica interview to claim that the Palestine Liberation Organization does not resort to terrorism and to repeat an unsubstantiated charge by an Italian magistrate recently that Israel’s secret service was attempting to destabilize Italy so that the United States would have to rely solely on Israel as an ally in the Mediterranean region.
According to Capucci, the PLO has no cause to resort to terrorism because it has won impressive diplomatic victories, having offices in 45 countries and gaining recognition by three. “Would it be in the interests of the PLO to have this de facto recognition questioned?” he asked.
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.
