The crisis in the always delicate relations between the Holy See and Israel is calmed again by
the rapid reversal
of the ambassador to the Vatican, Raphael Schutz,
who reduced
the harsh response that Israel gave to a statement by the Secretary of State to a translation error
, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Two days ago, the Pope's “prime minister” expressed his “
sgomento”
(in Spanish “dismay”)
“for the carnage”
that Israeli repression in Gaza has caused, more than 27,000 Palestinian deaths.
The Israeli ambassador said the fair translation was to consider
the Pope's "prime minister" phrase "unfortunate."
No one can think that the phrase of Cardinal Parolin, a master of diplomacy, was improvised or launched without
prior consultation with Pope Francis.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin Vatican Secretary of State.
Photo: Victor Sokolowicz
Ambassador Schutz may not have thought about it either, but the Israeli reaction (which first emerged) was to condemn
the intervention of the Vatican Secretary of State as “deplorable
,” something that was poorly received even in Israel.
A complex relationship
The Vatican and especially Pope Francis
maintain a complex relationship with Israel,
with
an intense personal exchange of the Argentine pontiff with rabbis
and the country's highest religious authorities.
Just this Thursday the Vatican newspaper “L'Osservatore Romano” published on its front page
a letter from a group of rabbis
and scholars of Judeo-Christian dialogue in which they write to the Pope: “We are comforted by the fact that you
have extended your hand to the Hebrews around the world
, and in particular to those of Israel, in this time of great suffering.”
The rabbis highlight “also
their efforts to actively oppose anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism,
which in recent times have assumed dimensions unknown to most of us during our lifetime.”
The letter is signed by
very important rabbis
, such as Jehoshua Ahren (Frankfurt/Bern), Yits Greenberg (Jerusalem/New York) and David Meyer (Paris/Rome), along with Karma Ben Johanan (Jerusalem) and Malka Zeigr Simkovich (Chicago) .
Palestinian children wait to receive food in Gaza.
Photo: AP
The official Vatican News website has also published
the position of Edith Bruck
, who in 1944 was deported by the Nazi government to Auschwitz.
The famous writer and poet
directed severe criticism against the current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
over the “carnage” suffered by Gaza.
Bruk points out that the Israeli premier's action “has harmed Jews in the diaspora because it has reinvigorated anti-Semitism, “which has never disappeared and has now increased.”
The writer added her conviction that “with this policy terrorists will never be eliminated.”