In Case Anyone Thinks Pope John Paul II Was Such a Great Friend to the Jews...

THE PAPAL VISIT; Pope Defends Vatican's Response To Holocaust in Talks With Jews.

Pertinent quote from the article:

In a public encounter with American Jewish leaders, Pope John Paul II defended the conduct of Pope Pius XII today against assertions that he failed to publicly condemn the persecution and extermination of Jews by the Nazis.

The Pope also used what was anticipated as a ceremonial exchange to assert that the Palestinian people have a right to a homeland.

For their part, the Jewish leaders expressed their ''pain and distress'' at the Pope's meeting last June with President Kurt Waldheim of Austria. And Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, honorary president of the Synagogue Council of America, told the Pope that the Holocaust was ''the culmination of centuries of anti-Semitism in European culture for which Christian teachings bear a heavy responsibility.''Impressive Candor Noted The themes sounded at the meeting today in a small, gray Miami auditorium filled with 200 representatives of American Jewish organizations, were not themselves new to the Pope or to Catholic and Jewish conversations: The Vatican's response to the Nazi Holocaust remains, 40 years later, one of the most contentious issues separating Jews and Catholics.

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