Rome denies Waldheim 'invited'

by our Rome correspondent POPE John Paul's planned encounters with American Jewish leaders during his September trip to the USA were under threat, and the Vatican engulfed in an unholy diplomatic row this week in the build-up to the Pope's official meeting on Thursday with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim.
As Jewish groups worldwide showered the Holy See and its representatives with messages of condemnation for agreeing to meet the President who is accused of war crimes against the Jewish people, Catholic bishops' conferences moved to defend the Pope. A Vatican spokesman "categorically denied" that any Vatican invitation had been issued. Joaquin-Navarro-Valls, the Pope's spokesman, stated that the Austrian government had "repeatedly requested" the meeting, and that Rome had bowed to this request because Waldheim is an elected head of state, and the "Holy Father, as is known, receives every head of state, if the meeting is requested."
The controversy is similar to that in 1984 when South African President P W Botha was received at the Vatican at his request.
However, Austrian Foreign Minister, Alois Mock, who will accompany Dr Waldheim on the first overseas visit of his one year presidency, told the press that the Pope had issued the invitation, "an exceptional gesture of the Holy Father to the President."
Since his controversial election, Dr Waldheim has been shunned by western nations and was in April placed on a "watch list" by the USA — effectively barring him from receiving a visa to visit that country. Italian officials planned to keep a low profile when Dr Waldheim landed at Rome airport yesterday, and were at pains to stress that he would not be an official visitor to Italy.
Pope John Paul, days before the encounter, spoke out in criticism of those who did not want the visit to go ahead. He declared himself a friend of the Jewish people, and Vatican representatives called attention to the Pope's promotion of closer links with the Jewish faith, and his historic visit to a Roman synagogue two years ago.
Sir Immanuel Jakobovits, the Chief Rabbi in London, has sent a telegram to the Vatican urging that the meeting be used to "impress on the Austrian government and people the still outstanding moral and material debt to Jewish survivors of Nazi oppression."
In America Jewish groups have taken to the streets in protest and the American Jewish Congress has threatened to withdraw from a proposed September 11 meeting with the Pope in Miami. The American bishops' conference has remained silent on whether or not the visit should take place, but has defended the Pope's position and his inability to snub a visiting head of state because of the dictates of protocol.
The New York-based World Jewish Congress condemned the meeting. "This is the Pope who met with Yassir Arafat (Leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation), this is the Pope who refuses to recognise Israel," they said. The Vatican does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. The Austrian Catholic bishops have been more outspoken. Archbishop Karl Berg of Salzburg, the president of the conference, told reporters of Waldheim: "Why shouldn't he visit the Pope? He is a Catholic. He is president of a Catholic nation." The archbishop said that his conference has not taken a position on the allegations against the President, but his personal view was that they were untrue.
According to charges first levelled by the World Jewish Congress last year, Waldheim was an officer in German army units involved in reprisals against Yugoslavian partisans and the deportation of Greek Jews to Nazi concentration camps. Waldheim has denied such charges saying that he has a "clear conscience" and "only did my duty" as a soldier in the German army.