At an ‘iftar’ dinner at the White House, US President Barack Obama has defended a controversial plan to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York, saying Muslims had a “right to do so.” read more »
In Brussels, leaders of all major faiths have held their annual meeting with the leaders of the three main EU institutions. read more »
Archbishop Koch Reflects on New Appointment read more »
Marc Schneier - JTA - 07 July 2010 read more »
The outgoing Vatican official in charge of relations with Judaism, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has said a decision on the beatification of war-time Pope Pius XII should wait until all Vatican archives are accessible to experts. Kasper will be replaced by the Swiss Bishop Kurt Koch on Thursday. read more »
Giacomo Babini, a retired Catholic bishop in Italy, has reportedly suggested that “Zionists” were behind the current storm of accusations over sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests that has been roiling the Vatican. read more »
Controversial subjects such as the role of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust were at the heart of talks between the International Jewish Committee for Inter-Religious Consultations and Vatican officials in Rome. read more »
A new report by the Presbyterian Church USA, which claims that Israeli occupation is the root of the Middle East conflict and calls on the US government to stop providing aid to Israel in order to halt Jewish settlement expansion, has been strongly criticized by Jewish leaders. read more »
The prefect of the Vatican’s Secret Archives, has said it would likely take five years before the archives on the pontificate of war-time Pope Pius XII are cataloged and opened to historians. read more »
18 Catholic scholars from Australia, Germany and the United States have written to Pope Benedict XVI urging him to delay making the controversial war-time Pope Pius XII a saint, ‘Reuters’ reports. read more »
The Vatican is planning to post selected documents from its World War II archives on the internet, according to the Catholic news agency ‘Zenit’. read more »
The culture of proscription and banning is alien to European culture and alien to preserving identity. It also gives exactly the opposite message that it seeks to convey, argues the chief rabbi of Moscow and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Conference of European Rabbis. read more »
Italian historians have unearthed documents kept in the British National Archives which suggest that wartime Pope Pius XII was not preoccupied with the Holocaust, but focused on alleged Soviet atrocities against Catholic civilians in eastern Europe. read more »
The most challenging task for Jews over the next decade is to improve their relations with Muslims, Rabbi Marc Schneier, the chairman of the World Jewish Congress United States and head of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, has said. read more »
A group of Islamic extremists has burst into a mosque near Paris during a prayer service and threatened to kill the local Imam, Hassen Chalghoumi, because of his efforts to improve relations between Jews and Muslims. read more »
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council expressed concern about the government's decision to lift its ban on relations with the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK's largest Muslim organization. read more »
The ultra-traditionalist Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson, whose denial of the extent of the Holocaust last year created an uproar a year ago, has called the discussions between the Vatican and his Pius Brotherhood a “dialogue of the deaf”. He also shed doubts about the legitimacy of Israel as a state read more »
During his highly publicized visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue, Pope Benedict XVI has said the Vatican had “provided assistance” to Jews in a “hidden and discreet way” during the Holocaust, thus indirectly defending his predecessor Pius XII. read more »
In a contribution for the leading Italian newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’ on the eve of Pope Benedict’s visit to the Rome synagogue, the president of the World Jewish Congress calls on the Catholic pontiff to clarify the Vatican’s stance on the controversial beatification of Pope Pius XII. read more »
Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to the Rome synagogue will take place in a "new atmosphere" in relations between Catholics and Jews, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of religious relations with Judaism, has said. read more »