Roman Catholic Body Repudiates Resolutions Adopted by Christian Conference in Beirut

A Roman Catholic body charged here today that anti-Israel resolutions adopted at the World Christian Conference for Palestine held in Beirut last month “were nothing short of an appeal to exert violence” and declared that the conference did not represent Christianity and that the Roman Catholic Church was not officially represented there. The repudiation was contained in a statement released by the Catholic Subcommission for Jewish-Christian Relationship in Belgium. The statement noted that those who attended the conference were private persons individually concerned “while those whose official task is Jewish-Christian relations and who are charged with this task were not invited.” The Belgian Catholics said the resolutions adopted at the conference were not official church decisions but “rather positions adopted in order to exert pressure on churches as far as the international political problem (of the Middle East) is concerned.” The statement declared, “While the Subcommission understands Christians’ concern about the Palestinian refugees’ fate, as well as all peoples’ right to decide their own fate, it also expresses sorrow that the Beirut conference failed to be objective and Just and did not try to understand the viewpoint of the State of Israel confronting the Arab states.” The Subcommission also expressed regret that a document concerning the implementation of the Vatican II statement on Christian-Jewish relations has not yet been published by the Vatican although it has been pending since 1969. The Subcommission expressed hope that the Church will investigate the political facets of the relationships between various religions and will call upon a team of International specialists and theologians for that purpose.