President Clinton urged Pope John Paul II to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel during the first-ever meeting between the two world leaders here last week.
Clinton raised the issue of Israeli-Vatican relations shortly after greeting the pontiff at Denver’s Stapleton International Airport.
The pope arrived in Denver last Thursday afternoon to participate in International World Youth Day, a four-day gathering of young Catholics from around the globe that temporarily swelled Denver’s population by an estimated 170,000.
The president’s suggestion was made in the pope’s presence during brief remarks to reporters at Denver’s Regis University, where the two leaders helicoptered after airport-greeting ceremonies.
Describing various topics discussed during their private 50-minute meeting at the university, Clinton said he had urged “closer ties between the Vatican and Israel.”
“That can only help us as we seek to pursue peace in the Middle East,” the president said.
The pope, in his own brief remarks to reporters, made no corresponding reference to Israel or the Middle East.
The president’s unexpected remark about Israel was seen by some commentators as mildly critical of Vatican policy. In its coverage, Denver’s Rocky Mountain News referred to it as Clinton’s “only statement that could be regarded as critical.”
It was also one of very few aspects of the pope’s American visit with a remotely Jewish dimension. During a Thursday night rally at Mile High Stadium, the pope acknowledged a small delegation of Catholic youths from Israel, in his only mention of the Jewish state.
VATICAN-ISRAEL TIES ‘MOVED FORWARD’
For the most part, the intensely Catholic character of the World Youth Day event generated no notable involvement of the Denver Jewish community, nor of any other local non-Catholic religious or ethnic groups.
But two national Jewish figures known for their work in Catholic-Jewish relations — Rabbi A. James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee and Rabbi Jack Bemporad of Sacred Heart University — were in Denver as invited observers.
Rudin, in comments to the Intermountain Jewish News before Clinton’s arrival, said that relations between Israel and the Vatican “are moving, not as fast as we would like, but certainly it is being moved forward.”
The rabbi also encouraged Denver Jews to be supportive of the pope and World Youth Day since many of its primary themes — family values, individual responsibility and halting youth violence — reflect American Jewish concerns.
“Yes, this is an internal Catholic event,” Rudin said. “Yes, Catholic young people from all over the world are coming, and we don’t expect Jews to participate in the masses or the religious side of it.
“But we want Jews to feel part of it,” he said. “There are values being expressed here that many Jews can ascribe to.”
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.
