Vatican set for "historic" visit by israeli president

Vatican set for "historic" visit by israeli president
Vatican, Nov. 16 (CWNews.com)

Vatican, Nov. 16 (CWNews.com) - Israel's President Moshe Katsav will meet with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday morning, November 17. This will be the first formal state visit by an Israeli president to the Vatican.

Oded Ben Hur, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, has said that the meeting will be a "historic visit," confirming the steady progress in relations between the Vatican and Israel. Pope John Paul II met with Katsav in December 2002, but the meeting was not an official state visit. The Israeli leader also met briefly with then-Cardinal Ratzinger when he attended the funeral for Pope John Paul II in April of this year.

President Katsav has indicated that he will issue a formal invitation for the Pope to visit the Holy Land. Although the Pope has already received such an invitation, the Israeli leader will doubtless urge the Pontiff to return his visit.

The talks between the Pontiff and the Israeli president are also certain to include discussion of the negotiations between Vatican and Israeli officials on the completion of a juridical accord to fulfill the terms of their 1993 agreement. Israeli spokesmen continue to say that the accord will be completed "as soon as possible;" Vatican officials are impatient for the end of the protracted negotiations.

After a period of tension early in the summer of 2005, when the Israeli foreign ministry lashed out at Pope Benedict for his alleged failure to condemn Palestinian terrorism, relations between the Vatican and Israel have improved significantly in recent weeks. Spokesmen for the Holy See made a point of voicing their "firm condemnation" of a terrorist attack in Hadera on October 28, and-- in a statement clearly aimed at the president of Iran, although not naming him-- denounced radical Islamic leaders who deny Israel's right to exist.

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