former head of the Greek Catholic Church released from Israel last weekend, may soon join the executive comrhittee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation have been vigorously denied by Vatican officials.
Archbishop Capucci was released after the Pope had sent a letter to Ephraim Katsir, the Israeli President, asking him to free the Archbishop on humanitarian grounds.
It is understood that the Pope had given the Israeli Government an implicit guarantee that the Archbishop would henceforth play no part in Middle-East politics but would take up new duties elsewhere.
The Archbishop has served nearly three years of a I2-year sentence for allegedly smuggling arms to Palestinian guerrillas in Israeli-occupied territory.
On his arrival in Rome on Sunday, the Archbishop was greeted by a number of Arab demonstrators chanting the hymn of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and waving banners reading "Capucci prayed and fought for a free and democratic Palestine," and "Welcome Capucci. You are a fighter for the freedom of the Palestine People."
Archbishop Capucci has been recovering this week in Rome's Salvatore Mundi Hospital. He is reported to be weak from malnutrition following a number of hunger strikes while in prison.