The removal of a Carmelite convent from the grounds of the former Auschwitz death camp appears unlikely by Feb. 22, the target date agreed to two years ago by Jewish representatives and officials of the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Albert Decourtray of France, who headed a delegation of four cardinals which signed the agreement with a Jewish delegation in Geneva in 1987, has apologized for the delay and asked forbearance.
But Theo Klein, who led the Jewish delegation, told a news conference here Thursday that “We Jews consider that Jewish-Catholic relations will be suspended until the Carmelites leave the place they are occupying in the former concentration camp, which is considered by Jews as the symbolic place of the Shoah,” the Holocaust.
Klein, who is president of CRIF, the representative body of major French Jewish organizations, said “the Jewish delegation will meet within the next few days to study the situation and make its response known.”
Klein displayed a letter he received from Decourtray several days ago, in which the cardinal cited administrative difficulties in Poland and problems linked to Catholic public opinion in that country as reasons why the move could not be implemented on time.
The occupants of the convent were to have transferred to an interreligious information, study and education center near Auschwitz, but not on its grounds.
The Carmelites have agreed to move, but the new site apparently is not ready, according to the cardinal.
His letter also stressed a new element, that the superiors of the Carmelite order in Rome have affirmed in writing that the removal would have to take place in conformity with the agreement.
‘NECESSARY, BUT NOT SUFFICIENT’
Rabbi A. James Rudin, director of inter-religious affairs of the American Jewish Committee in New York, said the statement that the nuns will move was “necessary, but not sufficient. There must be a final time for them to leave.”
Rudin chairs the International Jewish Committee on Religious Consultations which deals with Vatican-Jewish relations.
Its members met in New York Thursday to discuss Decourtray’s letter and the affirmation it contained from Rome.
The Catholic delegation which went to Geneva in 1987 has asked for more time to build the new center. It has proposed an interim installation to serve the Carmelite nuns temporarily until their new convent is built.
The delays stemmed from relations between church and state in Poland, said Klein.
“What we want now is to get out as quickly as possible from this deadlock which is blocking relations between Jews and Catholics,” he said.
Klein maintained the issue is as important for the church as for the Jews. “It is the church’s credibility which is concerned,” he said.
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