O’Connor Offers Prayers at Holocaust Memorial, Meets Arab Leaders on West Bank

New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor, on a controversial visit to Israel, knelt and prayed Friday in memory of 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis in World War II.

The 66-year-old Roman Catholic archbishop of New York City knelt amid plaques carrying the names of concentration camps in the cavernous hall of remembrance at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, which was lit only by a flickering eternal flame.

Speaking afterward in a voice filled with emotion, he said: “I have felt the suffering of the Jews for a long time. My whole life was changed by the awareness of what the Holocaust was.”

O’Connor’s visit to Yad Vashem appeared to be a further move to soothe Israeli sensitivities after cancellation of meetings planned with President Chaim Herzog, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

No Formal Ties

The cancellations were on orders from the Vatican, which feared official talks might be taken as a change in policy. The Vatican has no formal ties with Israel and refuses to recognize its control over Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish state.

O’Connor, who arrived from Jordan on Thursday for what is now being described as a private five-day visit, explained the misunderstanding was a result of his own earlier unawareness of Vatican protocol.

He met Religious Affairs Minister Zevulun Hammer in his office Friday. The Vatican ban did not apply to the meeting because the church allows contacts that are necessary to conduct regular church affairs.

After the meeting, Hammer called on the Vatican to change its policy toward Jerusalem.

“Since a dialogue is important to them, they should skip these barriers of place and respect heads of state by meetings in their offices,” Hammer told reporters.

Cardinal Urges Talks

O’Connor, meantime, urged Prime Minister Shamir and Foreign Minister Peres to change their minds and not insist on meeting him only in their Jerusalem offices.

“I hope to meet with those gentlemen. I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with them in some situation in which I would not be violating my trust,” he told reporters.

At Yad Vashem, O’Connor said the Vatican was not opposed to the state of Israel. “On the contrary, it is my personal conviction and the conviction of my Pope that Israel has the right to self-determination and the right to defend its borders,” he said.

O’Connor met later in the day with Palestinian leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where about 800,000 Palestinians live.

“I was very much impressed with his declarations. I’m greatly impressed with what he is saying about the rights of Palestinians . . . and that Palestinians shouldn’t be denied the sacred rights of all people,” Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij told the Associated Press after his private meeting with the cardinal.

Meets With Mayors

The prelate met two other Palestinian mayors from the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War.

Later Friday, O’Connor celebrated Mass at the site where Christian tradition says Jesus was born.

Freij and the Israeli military governor of the area greeted O’Connor in pouring rain at Manger Square, under a twinkling Christmas tree. The cardinal’s red cap was swept away by the wind and was returned by a robed choirboy who awaited O’Connor outside the Church of the Nativity.

O’Connor was guarded by about 20 policemen as two priests greeted him by the church door, one falling to his knees to kiss the cardinal’s ring.

About 300 people, mostly Palestinians, attended the Mass. The church is run by the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.