Vatican Secretary of State on Palestinian Problem

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 18 — Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, urged Italy to seek peace in the Holy Land and afterwards said the Church wants to help Israelis and Palestinians live together, each in their own state.

“We have to quickly bring an end to this situation, giving the right to two states to exist, the state of Israel and the state of Palestine,” Cardinal Sodano told the wire service after meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. “We must help these two people to live together.”

Chiapas Bishop Says Ban Encourages More Priests

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 17 — Bishop Felipe Arizmendi of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, said that a Vatican-ordered five-year suspension of permanent deacon ordinations should not be seen as racist or discriminatory but as an “invitation to increase the ordination of Indian priests” in Chiapas.

Bishop Arizmendi said it was a deficiency that only one Indian priest has been ordained since the time of his predecessor, Bishop Samuel Ruiz, while 342 men have become deacons. He said he hoped that the Vatican would allow the married deacons to become priests, but the Vatican has rejected such a step.

The wire service said that deacons are an important element in Chiapas because many Indian communities do not respect celibate men as much as married Church workers with families.

Bishops Ruiz and Arizmendi have built up an “indigenous Church,” incorporating pre-Columbian customs of the Mayan Indians, the article said.

Italian Court Rejects Case Against Vatican Radio

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Feb. 19 — Italy has no jurisdiction over the central institutions of the Vatican, including, a judge said in throwing out a case involving radiation from Vatican Radio's transmission towers.

Judge Andrea Calabria invoked the 1929 Lateran Treaty by which Italy recognized the sovereignty of the Vatican. The French news agency said that residents near a cluster of 28 Vatican Radio towers 19 miles north of Rome blame them for an alleged increase in leukemia and cancer tumors in the area. Their case was supported by environmental groups and Italy's Green Party.

Vatican Radio last year halved the power of its transmitters and the length of its medium-wave broadcasts in a bid to comply with new Italian regulations. However, the emissions of electromagnetic radiation remained between three and six times the maximum permitted level, the article said.

Vatican Radio said the decision does not mean that Vatican Radio will stop adopting “precautionary measures” against health risks, the Associate Press said. A leader of a citizens group fighting the emissions said he would take the case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Get Ready for Another Anti-Pius Feature

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Feb. 13 — Yet another attack on the memory of Pope Pius XII was unveiled at the Berlin Film Festival with the screening of “Amen,” by Franco-Greek director Costa-Gavras. “Amen” is a screen version of “The Deputy,” the 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth that started turning public opinion against the late Pope.

“Amen” accuses Pope Pius of ignoring evidence of severe persecution of the Jews. It dramatizes the life of Kurt Gerstein, an SS officer who appealed to the Vatican after his efforts to convince the United States, other Western allies and his own Lutheran church to intervene.

“The only organization that had real access to the German people was the Church,” Costa-Gavras told a news conference after the screening. “It should have raised protest as early as 1933,” the year Hitler came to power.

There is no mention in the report by the French news agency of how many Jews Pius actually did save — over 700,000 by some estimates. The Pope did speak out on several occasions but seems to have recognized that directly condemning Hitler led to even greater persecution of Jews and Christians.

Hochhuth told reporters that he was gratified by Costa-Gavras' courage in adapting his work.

But what kind of courage does it take when it seems de rigeur to condemn the late Pope? Perhaps it's time to stop putting the dead on trial and recognize that the Church has been speaking out about a Holocaust that is taking place right now. Will Costa-Gavras, Hochhuth, et al help give the Church a voice in trying to reverse the culture of death?