VATICAN: ISRAEL 'BLIND' TO POPE'S ROLE IN HOLOCAUST, SAYS
CHURCH OFFICIAL
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.404533302&par=0
Vatican City, 13 April (AKI) - With the Vatican and Israel at odds over
an exhibit at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial criticising what it
describes as Pope Pius XII's "silence" over the Nazi murders of Jews during
World War II, a senior church official has said the Jewish state is showing
"ignorance". "Israel's attitude toward the figure of Pius XII shows a
willingness not to recognise the role of the Church, attested by numerous
historical documents," Monsignor Pasquale Jacobone, of the Pontificial Council
for Culture, said Friday.
"Even documents recently found confirm Pius XII's interest to safeguard
Jews, many of whom were saved after they were sheltered in churches," he added.
On Thursday the Vatican's ambassador to Israel, Monsignor Antonio Franco,
said he would not attend Yad Vashem's annual memorial service for Holocaust
victims next week because of a caption accompanying a photograph of Pius on
display in the museum.
The caption reads that "even when reports about the murder of Jews
reached the Vatican, the pope did not protest," refusing to sign a 1942 Allied
condemnation of the massacre of Jews during World War II.
Pius "maintained his neutral position" with two exceptions, the caption
goes on to say, criticising "his silence and absence of guidelines." The
exceptions mentioned were appeals to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia toward
the end of the war not to persecute Jews.
"I don't intend to go to Yad Vashem if things remain the way they do,"
Franco was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"I respect the memory of the martyrs of the Holocaust but also the memory
of the pope," he said. "The right of one does not infringe on the right of the
other."
The memorial service for the Holocaust - in which some six million Jews
are believed to have been killed - is traditionally attended by all foreign
ambassadors to Israel or their representatives.
Yad Vashem said that Franco's defection would mark the first case in
which a foreign emissary deliberately skipped the ceremony.
The disputed photo caption first appeared in 2005, when Yad Vashem opened
its new museum. Shortly after, the previous Vatican ambassador asked that the
caption be changed, a request turned down by museum officials.
"Such an attitude on the part of Israel is based on hearsay... to
blindfold oneself to this reality (Pius' efforts to save Jews) shows more
ignorance than bad faith," Jacobone said.
The spat comes as relations between the Vatican and Israel are already
strained over Israel's foreign ministry cancelling at short notice a meeting
with Vatican officials scheduled for March 29 in Rome.
While the official reason given was the pressure of "international
political events," observers noted how the scrapping of the meeting was only
the latest delay in a negotiation process between the Holy See and the Jewish
state that have dragged on for more than 13 years.
The talks centre on the Vatican's property claims and its right to tax
exemption in the Holy Land. The failure to resolve the issues have left church
properties ranging from holy shrines to modern hospitals languishing in legal
and fiscal limbo.
Israeli has generally granted tax exemptions to Catholic properties. But
the church has no access to judicial courts when land ownership disputes occur,
and is not guaranteed tax-exempt status that it and other religious
institutions routinely receive in other countries.
In recent years, local and regional governments have begun pressing for
back taxes on Catholic hospitals and other properties that are not strictly
speaking houses of worship.
The Vatican argues that its right to tax exemption was established
centuries ago, recognized under the Ottoman Empire and reflected in United
Nations Resolution 181, which effectively created Israel.
(Rak/Aki)
Apr-13-07 16:35
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
