Hints of limited progress in resolving the controversy over the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz emerged over the weekend, as Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Poland was reported to be striking a more conciliatory posture on an issue that has exacerbated tensions between Catholics and Jews.
Glemp, who only weeks ago called for the renegotiation of a 1987 agreement to relocate the convent, was quoted in a Polish newspaper interview Saturday as saying it would be better if the Carmelite nuns living there would leave, though they have the right to stay.
On Thursday, Glemp met with a wealthy Jewish businessman of Polish origin who reportedly offered to help pay for the cost of relocating the convent.
The official Polish news agency PAP identified the businessman as a West German named Zygmunt Nissenbaum, who has set up a charitable trust.
Glemp claimed recently that the Polish Church lacked funds to relocate the nuns.
But in New York, a World Jewish Congress official claimed Sunday that “the whole question of who is going to pay for it is a canard.”
Elan Steinberg, the organization’s executive director, said the 1987 agreement makes clear that three Catholic cardinals who signed the accord will help raise the necessary funds.
Here in France, one of those cardinals, Archbishop Albert Decourtray of Lyon, offered to meet with Glemp to resolve the issue, but no meeting has yet been arranged.
In Brussels, the Jewish magazine Regards said that unidentified American Jewish leaders have written to Glemp suggesting that talks on the convent issue be restarted from scratch.
According to the magazine, which is published by the left-leaning Secular Jewish Community Center of Brussels, “there could be more than coincidence between this Jewish move and recent remarks by Glemp demanding to negotiate with competent people.”
The umbrella organization of Belgian Jewry has called for a protest Wednesday outside the residence of the papal nuncio, the Vatican envoy, in Brussels.
(JTA correspondent Yossi Lempkowicz in Brussels contributed to this report.)
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