Pope’s Meeting With Waldheim

Bewildered by the intensity of Jewish objections to the fact that Pope John Paul II received Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in audience “with full state honors,” some Catholics have asked if Jews are intruding on papal prerogatives. As head of a state as well as the Roman Catholic Church, is not the Pope free to meet with other heads of state? Why the great fuss?

No one, not even the most stringent critics of the audience, has challenged the Pope’s right to meet with whom he chooses. Yet how would Catholics feel if--for example, the State of Israel were to extend the offer of a state visit to a foreign government leader accused of complicity in the murder of Roman Catholics--a leader not convicted by a court of law, but with enough evidence against him to make him persona non grata in the United States. Diplomatic prerogatives aside, Catholics might well be offended by such a development. In such a case, they should have the right to give vent to their feelings without fear of jeopardizing their cordial relations with the Jewish community.

In similar vein Jews and Christians alike have the right to raise concerns about the Vatican’s granting of the privilege of a state audience to a man who consistently lied to the international community about his complicity in the deportation of Greeks, Jews and Yugoslavs as a Nazi officer during World War II. No Western democracy has invited Waldheim for a state visit, and Western leaders who visited Austria have found a way to avoid meeting with him. In the light of the Pope’s stated support for human rights and dignity, it is ironic that the Vatican was the first state to accord him such an honor. Jews should surely be free to express their distress on this matter without jeopardizing the enormous progress toward Catholic-Jewish understanding forged in recent years.

CATHY R. MENDELSON

President

Los Angeles Chapter

American Jewish Committee