.bmp)
.bmp)
ROME-The Vatican worked Thursday to minimize the significance of a brief meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and a Polish priest accused of making anti-Semitic statements, in the latest of several tense episodes recently between Jews and Roman Catholics.In a one-sentence statement,the Vatican suggested that the meeting consisted only of a “kiss of the hand,”and that it did not “imply any change in the well known position of the Holy See and the relations between Catholics and Jews.”For days, Jewish groups in Europe and the US have strongly denounced the pope’s meeting with the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk,director of Radio Maryja,a media group that has angered not only Jews but also the Vatican for broadcasts considered anti-Semitic. The meeting took place on Sunday at the pope’s summer residence at Castelgandolfo, outside of Rome, after his traditional Sunday public blessing.Earlier statements from the Vatican suggested that the pope had merely greeted several pilgrims at the audience, Father Rydzyk among them, and that the meeting was “without special significance.”In Poland, however, Radio Maryja’s daily newspaper, Nasz Dziennik, printed photographs of the meeting, saying that the pope “blessed Radio Maryja and its work.”The Vatican statement did not address the paper’s claims, nor did it meet demands from Jewish groups that Benedict specifically denounce statements made on Radio Maryja that they consider anti-Semitic.The European Jewish Congress, which had strongly chastised the pope for the meeting, issued a statement on Thursday saying that it welcomed the pope’s affirmation “that relations between Catholics and Jews will remain in the future as they have been established over the past few decades.“Nevertheless, we hope to see the Vatican strongly condemn the anti-Semitism that is still spread today by Radio Maryja,” said the statement from the group’s vice president, Richard Prasquier.In a recorded speech to journalism students in Poland last spring, Father Rydzyk accused Jews of being greedy and the Polish government of bowing to the “Jewish lobby.” He apologized after a transcript of the tape was published last month.Jewish groups have generally praised Pope Benedict. Before he was elected pope two years ago, Joseph Ratzinger, then a cardinal, was considered to be at the forefront of efforts to close the gap of anger and suspicion between the faiths, much of it fueled by Jewish allegations that the church did not do enough during the Holocaust.However, Jewish groups criticized him earlier this summer for liberalizing the use of the old Latin Mass, not in wide use for 50 years, which contains a once-a-year prayer for the conversion of Jews to Christianity.This week, the Roman Catholic Church in Italy also was criticized after a well-known priest tied to the nation’s political right, the Rev. Pietro Gelmini, blamed unspecified “Jewish radical-chic” groups for recent charges that he had sexually abused several clients at a drug treatment center he runs.As in the days of Noah...
