VATICAN, Nov. 2, 00 (CWNews.com) - In response to a request from the Israeli government, the chief spokesman for the Holy See has said that there can be no question of the Church's opposition to anti-Semitism.
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the head of the Vatican press office, made his statement to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. He was responding to a request made by Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, and relayed through the papal nuncio in Israel, Archbishop Pietro Sambi.
Herzog had asked for an immediate Vatican statement of "a clear and unequivocal position against anti-Semitism." In making that request the Israeli leader cited the 1993 accord in which Israel and the Holy See pledged to work together against "all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, and religious intolerance."
"What could be more clear, and less equivocal, than what the Pope affirmed last March 23 during his visit to the Yad Vashem memorial?" Navarro-Valls asked. At that Israeli memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, the Pontiff-- alongside Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, spoke of the "profound sorrow" of the Church regarding anti-Semitism, and asked the world to "pay attention to the message carried by the victims of the Holocaust and the witness of the survivors."
CWN
2. november 2000