Waldheim revisited

JEWISH organisations have warned of the "serious implications" of further papal meetings with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim. Their public statements came after the Vatican announced that Pope John Paul II is to visit Austria in June, and a church official confirmed that he will have at least three meetings with the state president.
Kurt Waldheim has been accused of being involved in Nazi war atrocities, a charge he has repeatedly denied. Pope John Paul was the first head of state to receive Dr Waldheim after the latters controversial election as Austrian President. Until his trip to the Vatican last June, Dr Waldheim had been shunned by western European leaders until the allegations about his past had been dealt with.
After that meeting, angry Jewish leaders in America threatened to boycott the papal trip to their country, while the whole Catholic-Jewish dialogue was thrown into turmoil.
• Two high ranking Vatican officials, one Austrian and one German, helped Nazi war criminals to escape to Latin America after the second World War according to the retired Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Franz Koenig. Quoted in the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronath, the 82 year old former Primate of Austria refused to name names, but said that the Catholic Church in Austria bore part of the responsibility for Nazi crimes against the Jews. A number of churchmen in the 1930s had not truly understood Nazism, the cardinal said. This was "a mistake that led to tragedy"