A US rabbi calls on Pope Francis to remove a Catholic church from the grounds of Auschwitz, on the eve of the pontiff’s visit to the Nazi death camp.
Rabbi Avi Weiss, national president of AMCHA-Coalition for Jewish Concerns, dispatches the missive via New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
Weiss writes that the presence of the church at the site is a “clear violation” of a 1987 agreement between Roman Catholic Cardinals and Jewish leaders, which he says: “stipulates in clear language that ‘there will be no permanent Catholic place of worship on the site of the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.’”
He writes: “I have deep respect for people of all faiths, symbols and places of worship of all faiths, but a church does not belong at the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.”
Weiss previously protested against the Carmelite convent established by the nuns in 1984 on a building on the grounds of Auschwitz. It was closed by Pope John Paul in 1993.
The pope is due to visit Auschwitz on Friday, and will be the third leader of the Catholic Church to do so.
Pope Francis pauses after laying a wreath of flowers in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on May 26, 2014. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)
— JTA
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