A 27 member delegation of American Jewish Committee leaders, enroute home after spending two weeks in Israel, had a special audience today with Pope Paul VI. In a statement, read in English, the Pontiff said the Vatican Council II laid the foundations for the improvement of relations between Catholics and the faithful of other religions and added that “a special link exists between Catholics and Jews.” The Pope stated: “We want the directive of the Vatican Council to be put into practice so that through the development of abetter understanding and a deeper respect between Christians and Jews, they may be able to work together in the task of serving the peace and well being of all mankind.” In reply, AJCommittee president Bernard Abrams of West Hartford, Conn., said that the AJCommittee was “preoccupied with the recent apparent misinterpretations of the Vatican’s position concerning Jerusalem and the Holy Places therein, and would hope for a clarification making the distinction between the safeguarding of the Holy Places and the status of the city as a whole.”
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