09 August 2007
Jewish groups have criticized Pope Benedict XVI for meeting with a radical Polish priest accused of making anti-Semitic statements. Father Tadeusz Rydzyk was part of a Polish delegation which had a private audience with the Pope at his summer residence near Rome on Sunday. The Redemptionist priest, who owns the controversial Polish radio station ‘Radio Maryja’, has repeatedly come under fire for anti-Semitic broadcasts. The meeting came just days after Rydzyk issued a public apology for accusing a "Jewish lobby" of trying to extort millions from the Polish state. Jewish rights groups said they were concerned the meeting gave legitimacy to Rydzyk and Radio Maryja.
In a press release the European Jewish Congress (EJC) said it was “shocked to learn that Pope Benedict XVI has received in private at his summer residence Tadeusz Rydzyk, the head of Radio Maryja, whose anti-Semitic statements have been widely spread through his media network. The EJC is astonished by the fact that Pope Benedict XVI has granted with a private audience and his blessing a man and an institution that have tarnished the image of the Polish church”.
In a statement addressed to the Pope, Abraham Foxman of the US based Anti-Defamation League said "You have unfortunately lent him the priceless credibility of your office and integrity in the eyes of the world".
Speaking to the Reuters press agency the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's European office in Paris, Shimon Samuels, said "I think that there was greater sensitivity with the [previous] Pope from Poland on issues such as this," adding that he had asked the Pontiff to condemn statements from Radio Maryja even before the meeting, but that "Nothing has come out”.
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