Catholic World News News Feature

Rabbis to meet Pope amid Vatican-Israel tensions January 15, 2004

Pope John Paul II will meet on Friday with the two grand rabbis of Israel, Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar.

The two Israeli Jewish leaders will meet with the Pontiff prior to a special concert on Friday night. The concert, organized by the Vatican as a gesture toward reconciliation among the world's three great monotheistic religions, will feature American conductor Gilbert Levine.

This will be the first meeting between the Pope and the Israeli religious leaders since John Paul visited the Holy Land in 2000. Their conversation is likely to revolve around Jewish-Christian relations, with a secondary emphasis on relations between the Holy See and the state of Israel.

Vatican views regarding Israel are marked by some tension, because of strong Vatican opposition to the Israeli building of a "security wall" blocking Palestinian territory. The problem has been compounded by new Israeli plans to restrict access to the Palestinian territories for foreign visitors.

Under the terms of the new policy, visitors to Israel-- including Christian pilgrims-- will not be able to enter Palestinian territories without special permission, which in turn will require approval from the embassies of their home countries. The exact details of the policy are not yet clear, but it is evident that the measure will inhibit Christian pilgrims from visiting the shrines of Bethlehem, among other places.

The Vatican is expected to lodge a strong formal protest against the new policy, which violates the terms of the "fundamental accords" signed by the Holy See and the Israeli government in 1993. In that historic agreement, the Israeli government made a commitment to preserve free access to Christian shrines, and to support pilgrimages by Christians to the Holy Land. The restricted access to Palestinian territories will obviously be an obstacle for group pilgrimages as well as individual visitors.