Vatican Backs Jews’ Demands : Agrees Auschwitz Convent Should Be Moved, Offers Aid

The Vatican said today that a convent on the site of the Auschwitz death camp that has offended Jewish groups should be moved and that it will help pay to construct a new prayer center outside the camp.

The statement from the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism was the first public declaration by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and clearly had the approval of Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

The controversy has severely strained Catholic-Jewish relations and resulted in a highly unusual public split among Catholic cardinals.

In its communique, the Vatican diplomatically but firmly rejected the position held by Poland’s primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks recently and has called the proposed removal of the nuns “a scandal.”

In New York, the World Jewish Congress hailed the Vatican’s statement, saying it would improve Catholic-Jewish relations.

‘Very Important Step’

“We welcome this very important step in restoring the good word of the church,” said Elan Steinberg, the World Jewish Congress’ executive director. “It’s time to move on and implement the agreement.”

In February, 1987, Jewish and Catholic representatives agreed in Geneva to move the Carmelite nuns from the convent at the edge of the camp site in Poland. Jewish groups say they are offended by the presence of the convent and a 23-foot cross at the Auschwitz-Birkenau site, where an estimated 2.5 million Jews were killed during Hitler’s campaign to annihilate Jews.

Poles have argued that the nuns, who established the convent to pray for the death camp’s victims, are not harming anyone and that thousands of Auschwitz victims were Polish political prisoners, including priests and nuns.

The nuns were to be moved by last February, but the deadline passed and no prayer center was erected. On Aug. 10, the archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, announced that he was suspending the agreement because Jewish protesters had created an “atmosphere of aggressive demands.”

Glemp fueled the controversy by saying that the accord should be renegotiated and that the Polish church lacked money to build a prayer center.

The Vatican’s communique emphasized that the nuns should be moved to the new center. In an apparent response to Glemp, it said that “toward the realization of this important but expensive project, the Holy See is disposed to offer its financial support.”

Glemp told reporters during a visit to Bristol, England, that there was a “possibility” the nuns would be moved. Told of the Vatican statement, he said, “This would seem to be a forceful resolution of the problem, and I don’t think that would be a very positive way of resolving it.”

The Vatican commission’s secretary, the Rev. Pier Francesco Fumagalli, told reporters at a briefing that the Vatican would let Polish church authorities decide exactly where, how and when the nuns’ new home would be built.