An Israeli government official said Friday it has good relations with the Vatican despite a recent controversy over Pope Benedict XVI's decision to readmit an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust to the Roman Catholic Church.Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy, said that "the climate is good" and that there is "a lot of potential for the cooperation" between the Vatican and Israel.
Relations between Israel and the Vatican suffered a blow last week when Benedict lifted the excommunication of Richard Williamson and three other bishops of the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X.
The bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent _ a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.
Jewish groups denounced the Vatican for having embraced a Holocaust denier and Israel's chief rabbinate, the country's highest Jewish body, severed ties with the Vatican.
On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI said he feels "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews and warned against any denial of the full horror of the Nazi genocide.
Lewy made his comments on the sidelines of the presentation of a catalogue of ancient Hebrew manuscripts that are kept at the Vatican library. He called the catalogue a "milestone" for Vatican-Israel cultural collaboration.
The catalogue, compiled with the help of Jewish cultural institutions, lists around 800 manuscripts on subjects like religion, philosophy, astronomy, medicine and literature.
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(Source: DMC)