Vatican, Israeli officials work toward financial, juridical agreement
July 13, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)
ROME (CNS) - Representatives of the Vatican and the Israeli government met in Jerusalem July 11 to continue work on an agreement regarding the financial and juridical status of Catholic institutions in Israel.
A brief statement released in Rome July 12 by the Israeli embassy to the Holy See said, "The delegations met in a climate of great cordiality, made progress and renewed their common determination to accelerate the work so that an agreement could be reached as soon as possible."
The negotiators will meet again Sept. 3 in Jerusalem, the statement said.
In late May the full membership of the Vatican-Israeli permanent working commission met for the first time in five years to discuss contested issues related to church property, taxation and the legal rights of church institutions in Israel.
Franciscan Father David Jaeger, who was part of the Vatican delegation at the May meeting, told Vatican Radio July 13 that the negotiations themselves have never run into big problems, but progress had been impeded by the fact that "it was difficult to schedule meetings."
"Once the meetings were set on a more or less regular basis, the negotiations went fairly well. But time is needed," he said, because the issues involved "are extremely complex."
From the beginning of the negotiations in 1994, Vatican officials have asked Israel to:
- Guarantee Catholic access to juridical due process through the Israeli court system when property disputes arise. Israel's position has been that church property disputes are matters to be handled by the government, not the courts.
- Formally extend the exemption from taxation enjoyed by church properties and institutions before Israeli statehood.
- Return confiscated church properties. The most discussed property has been the site of a church shrine, destroyed in the 1950s, in Caesarea.
SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...