November 17, 2005
In Rome, Israel's president Moshe Katsav has met Pope Benedict XVI and invited the head of the Catholic Church to visit the Jewish state. During a 25-minute audience at the Vatican, the Pope apparently "welcomed positively" the invitation but that no date had been fixed. "For my part, I hope it will be next year", Katsav said. Diplomatic sources said that the Vatican had set firm pre-conditions for such a visit. The Vatican wants decade-long negotiations over the legal and financial status of the Roman Catholic Church in Israel to be concluded before Benedict sets foot in Israel, the sources said. Talks have stalled on the unconcluded Fundamental Agreement to underpin their relations since Israel and the Holy See established formal diplomatic ties in June 1994. The talks appear to have stumbled on the Church's demand for tax exemptions and guaranteed access to the courts in disputes over religious property.
"We have agreed to accelerate the discussions," Katsav told a news conference following his meeting with Benedict, which he described as "cordial and warm." Asked by a journalist if he had asked the Pope had condemned Palestinian terrorism, Katsav replied that "the Pope himself began our meeting with a declaration condemning terrorism and anti-Semitism." In an exchange of gifts which is traditional at such meetings, Benedict presented Katsav with a framed copy of the 1965 document "Nostra Aetate," in which the Vatican recognized the legitimacy of the Jewish religion for the first time.
