Criticism continued here of the meeting held at the Vatican last week by Cardinal Augustino Casaroli, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, with Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s political department. The criticism was coupled with a warning that such incidents threaten Jewish-Catholic relations.
A letter protesting the meeting was sent to Msgr. Jorge Mejia, of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity, by the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, a coalition of Protestant and Catholic clergy and laity who seek to foster understanding and support for Israel in the United States.
“By officially receiving those who vowed to add one more horrible chapter to the long history of Jewish suffering, the Church–we believe–nourishes fear among our Jewish brothers and sisters that once again Christians will foresake them at a critical moment in their history,” the Leadership Conference said.” In light of past experience such sentiments are all too understandable.”
The letter declared that: “We hope and pray for a clear word from the Holy See that legitimate concerns about the Palestinian people and questions about Jerusalem cannot be negotiated with people who, through their National Covenant and their actions, threaten the very survival of the State of Israel as well as the peace of the world.”
The letter was signed by Dr. Frank H. Littell, president of the Leadership Conference; Sister Rose Thering, vice president; Rev. William Harter, secretary-treasurer and Rev. Isaac Rottenberg, executive director.
CONCERNED OVER EMERGING PATTERN
The American Jewish Congress also expressed concern that Casaroli’s meeting with Kaddoumi was part of an emerging pattern of Church actions that threatens a deterioration of relations between the Church and Jews.
“With the election of John Paul II (as Pope), a witness to the destruction of European Jewry, we were deeply hopeful that the Catholic Church would be more responsive to the depth of Jewish suffering and the necessity to prevent a recurrence of such crimes against the Jewish people,” Henry Siegman, executive director of the AJCongress said. “The meeting with the PLO follows a number of developments in recent months, including a hostile reference to Jewish ethics in the recent Encyclical, which have gone for to undermine this hope.”
Earlier, the meeting between Casaroli and Kaddoumi was sharply criticized by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the Israel Consulate General in New York.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
