Catholic Conference Leader Says Stand on Jerusalem is His Personal View

The general secretary of the United States Catholic Conference said yesterday that the Rev. Joseph L. Ryan, S.J., was speaking for himself when he testified before a House subcommittee in Washington last Thursday in favor of internationalizing Jerusalem. In a telephone interview from Washington with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Bishop Joseph Bernardin said; “We have not taken a position (on Jerusalem). It’s being studied now (by a USCC committee).” At the hearings on Jerusalem of the Near East subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committees, Father Ryan was identified as belonging to the Cambridge Center of Social Studies, Cambridge, Mass. In a joint statement with Dr. James Kritzeck of the Institute for Advanced Religious Studies, Notre Dame, Father Ryan said that a withdrawal by Israel from “the territories occupied in June, 1967” was necessary “in recognition and application of the requirements of justice.”