wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Pope and Israeli president to meet next month

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8945 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05532
Oct. 4, 2005

Pope and Israeli president
will meet in Vatican next month

by Michele Green 
Ecumenical News International  

JERUSALEM - Israeli President Moshe Katsav will become the first Israeli head
of state to meet the pope when he makes an official visit to the Vatican next
month.

	The meeting will highlight reconciliation efforts between the Roman
Catholic Church and the Jewish people after centuries of hostility.  
  
	"The visit is of great symbolic value," said Mark Regev, a spokesman
for the Israeli foreign ministry. "We have every reason to believe that the
new pope is building on the foundation that the previous pope already built,
and we will see a further strengthening of our relationship."	
  
	The ministry said Katsav will meet with Pope Benedict XVI on Nov. 17
during a weeklong visit to Italy. Israeli officials and Jewish leaders have
been guests at the Vatican in the past, but this will be the first such visit
by an Israeli president.  
  
	The meeting was scheduled in the wake of a diplomatic spat between
Israel and the Vatican over a papal condemnation of terrorist attacks. Israel
was irritated that the pontiff did not mention the Jewish state as a victim
of terrorist attacks in a statement he issued after suicide bomb attacks in
London in July.  
  
	The crisis was resolved when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
wrote a letter to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state,
calling the Pope "a true friend of Israel." Sodano said a misunderstanding
had arisen because of an "error."  
  
	The rift has been healed, in part because the pope visited a German
synagogue in August and denounced anti-Semitism.   
  
	Israeli officials said Katsav and Benedict will discuss programs to
improve cooperation between Israel and the Vatican and intensify dialogue
between Jews and Catholics. Katsav will ask the pope to step up the Vatican's
efforts to fight anti-Semitism around the world and to give researchers
access to documents in the Vatican archives.

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