The Vatican worked Thursday to distance itself from a brief meeting this week between Pope Benedict XVI and a Polish priest who has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements.In a one-sentence statement, the Vatican suggested that the meeting consisted only of a "kiss of the hand" and that it did not "imply any change in the well known position of the Holy See and the relations between Catholics and Jews."
Jewish groups in Europe and the United States have denounced the pope's meeting with the Reverend Tadeusz Rydzyk, head of Radio Maryja, a Polish station that has angered Jews and the Vatican with broadcasts that both consider to be anti-Semitic.
The meeting took place at the pope's summer residence, Castelgandolfo outside Rome, after his traditional Sunday public blessing.
Earlier statements from the Vatican suggested that the pope had merely greeted several pilgrims at the audience, Rydzyk among them, and that the meeting was "without special significance."
In Poland, however, the radio station's daily newspaper, Nasz Dziennik, printed photographs of the meeting, saying the pope "blessed Radio Maryja and its work."
The Vatican statement did not address the paper's claims, nor did it meet demands from Jewish groups that Benedict specifically denounce statements on Radio Maryja that they consider anti-Semitic.
The European Jewish Congress, which has chastised the pope for the meeting, issued a statement Thursday saying that it welcomed the pope's affirmation "that relations between Catholics and Jews will remain in the future as they have been established over the past few decades."
The statement from the group's vice president, Richard Prasquier, continued: "Nevertheless we hope to see the Vatican strongly condemn the anti-Semitism that is still spread today by Radio Maryja."
In a recorded speech Rydzyk gave to journalism students in Poland last spring - among other contentious statements over many years - he accused Jews of being greedy and the Polish government of bowing to the "Jewish lobby."
He apologized after the tape was released last month.
Jewish groups have generally praised Benedict: Before he was elected pope two years ago, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was considered at the forefront of efforts to close the gap of anger and suspicion between the two faiths, much of it fueled by allegations that the church did not do enough to save Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.
But Jewish groups criticized him this summer for liberalizing the use of the old Latin Mass, not in wide use for 50 years, which contains a once-a-year prayer for the conversion of Jews to Christianity.
This week, the Italian Catholic Church also came under fire after a priest tied to the nation's political right, the Reverend Pierino Gelmini, blamed unspecified "Jewish radical-chic" groups for recent charges that he sexually abused several clients at drug treatment center he runs.
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