FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)It could be five years before the Vatican’s secret archives dealing with Pope Pius XII’s reign are fully catalogued and opened to scholars, a Vatican official said.
Bishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, made the time estimate Monday when he opened an event in the Canary Islands on the history of the Church, the Catholic news agency Zenit reported.
There exist some 16 million documents from Pius’ 1939-58 pontificate, according to Zenit.
Jewish and other scholars have called on the Vatican to open the secret archives from the World War II period to clarify the role Pius played during the Holocaust. Critics accuse him of turning a blind eye to Jewish suffering; the Vatican and other supporters say he worked behind the scenes to save Jews.
Last month a group of Catholic scholars wrote to Pope Benedict XVI urging him to slow Pius’ advance toward sainthood until the matter is cleared up.
According to Zenit, Pagano said the Vatican would be willing to open the archives immediately, since there was nothing to “fear” from them, but the documents must still be registered, catalogued and put into order.
Spanish Students Send Anti-Semitic Cards to Israel Embassy
Israel’s embassy in Madrid has received dozens of postcards from Spanish schoolchildren containing anti-Semitic messages.
On Sunday, Israel lodged a formal complaint with the Spanish government charging that Spanish schools are promoting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel ideas among young children.
Some of the postcards read “Jews kill for money,” “Leave the country to the Palestinians” and “Go somewhere where they will accept you,” Haaretz reported.
Other letters addressed to the ambassador, Rafi Shotz, read: “How many Palestinians have you murdered today?” and “Mr. Ambassador, you should think about not killing the Palestinian children and elderly. I don’t know if it doesn’t bother you, having to murder people. You should leave Palestine,” according to Ynet.
In a phone call with Foreign Ministry’s deputy director of European affairs, Naor Gilon, Spanish Ambassador to Israel Alvaro Iranzo said that the letters were not part of Spain’s national education curriculum and appear to be a private initiative.
Gilon called the letter-writing campaign an “incitement against Israel.”
Venezuelan Envoy Says Jews Not Targeted
Venezuela’s U.S. ambassador denied that Jews are being targeted by the government of President Hugo Chavez and justified Venezuela’s growing friendship with Iran.
Bernardo Alvarez was speaking here Feb. 25 at a breakfast for the media, the day after the release of a 300-page report by the Organization of American States blasting the Chavez government for widespread human rights abuses.
“I have twice taken delegations of the World Jewish Congress to Venezuela, and we reaffirmed to them that Venezuela is against all kinds of discrimination,” he said. “In fact, Jewish people who had left for Israel are now coming back to Venezuela.”
Over the past decade, the Jewish community has fallen from a high of about 20,000 members to the oft-cited figures of 13,000 to 10,000, according to local Jewish activists.
Tiferet Israel, the main synagogue in the capital city of Caracas, was vandalized in January 2009. Eight police officers were among those charged in connection with the attack.
Alvarez sharply criticized the OAS report, as well as an earlier one by the U.S. State Department that cited Venezuela’s political and economic ties with Iran, as well as Israeli allegations that Hezbollah cells operate on the offshore island of Isla Margarita.
“We have a large community of Syrians and Lebanese on Margarita, and those guys are very good merchants, but they don’t support terrorism,” he said.
In response to a question from JTA, Alvarez defended the close personal ties that Chavez has cultivated with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
“Iran has been a partner of Venezuela for years,” Alvarez said, adding later that “We have a good friendship with Ahmadenijad, as we did with Khatami,” his predecessor, “and we will be ready to work with any other Iranian president who follows.”
Alvarez denied persistent rumors that Venezuela is helping Iran circumvent sanctions on oil exports.
He also said Venezuela has no plans to restore full diplomatic relations with Israel.