A symposium attended by leaders of the Catholic Church in Poland is set to open in Warsaw tomorrow to discuss problems arising from the Carmelite convent located on the site of the former Auschwitz death camp, a delegation of WIZO women was told.
The Polish minister for religious affairs told the 300-strong world WIZO delegation, led by Raya Yaglom, WIZO world president, that the symposium will also discuss relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism.
The delegation met with him after the WIZO women held a silent protest demonstration May 29 outside the convent during a visit to Auschwitz, as part of a tour of Nazi sites in Poland.
The women, from 27 countries, returned to Israel yesterday, where they will now be attending a seminar on the theme of “From Holocaust to Revival,” marking 50 years since the outbreak of World War II.
Catholic Church leaders had agreed two years ago to have the Carmelite convent removed from the site of the death camp, where millions of Jews were exterminated, by Feb. 22.
But church leaders have recently said that the question of the convent on that site was a matter to be decided on by the Polish authorities.
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