Rome tries to calm Jewish protests

IN a week that has seen the Vatican extend an invitation to Jewish groups in an effort to diffuse the crisis over the Pope's June meeting with Austria's President, Kurt Waldheim, an American archbishop has resolutely defended the Pontiff's decision in the face of demonstrations by Jewish protestors.
On Tuesday, Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, President of the Vatican Commission for Christian Unity, telephoned Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, Chairman of the Jewish International Committee on Interreligious Consultations, and invited him to Rome. The Pope is anxious to avoid repercussions from the Waldheim encounter marring his forthcoming American trip.
In much the same spirit, one of his hosts in America, Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco has issued a four-page letter defending the Pope and rebuking those who have launched pavement demonstrations in protest against the involvement of the city's Jewish mayor, Dianne Feinstein, in fund-raising for the pontiff's visit. "Our spirit of mutual trust, friendship, collaboration and respect must continue," the archbishop, who will look after the Pope on September 17 and 18, told local Jewish groups. The Waldheim visit must be put "in perspective."
Archbishop Quinn pointed out that as a head of state the Pope received Mr Waldheim as a matter of diplomacy. "Diplomatic relations are not meant to be understood as an endorsement of individual regimes or of all their acts. Even less could such an audience be understood as an endorsement for the acts of government officials taken prior to their election to office."
Archbishop Quinn stressed that Waldheim had never been tried or convicted of alleged war crimes, and that therefore "the Pope cannot be placed in the position of treating persons as criminals when the secular authorities have not brought forward formal accusations."
Marchers, including survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp, supported the demonstrations in San Francisco outside the mayor's home. Michael Turner, one of the organisers, attacked Mayor Feinstein "as a Jewish leader for raising money from the Jewish community for the Pope's visit."