From The Jerusalem Post -- Friday, November 12, 1999

Leading cardinal stresses Jews' historic link to Jerusalem

By HAIM SHAPIRO

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, spiritual leader of the diocese of Milan, the largest Roman Catholic diocese in Europe, and one of the leading figures in the Catholic Church, yesterday stressed the uniqueness of Jerusalem as a holy place for the Jews, in contrast to Christians and Moslems.

Martini, who is visiting as the leader of a group of 1,200 pilgrims, made the comments as part of an address to an interfaith gathering at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. He spoke of his in meetings with other Christian leaders and with Moslem leaders, but he also made a distinction between the way in which these faiths related to Jerusalem and its place in Judaism.

'We recall that while in other religious traditions, new spiritual centers arose, such as Rome and Mecca, for the Jewish tradition Jerusalem is one and eternal,' he said. In his address, Martini also noted that in contrast to the Northern Italian Lombards of the first Crusade, who came to Jerusalem to conquer, he and the members of his group had come on a spiritual quest. They came, he said, in a spirit of repentance and atonement. Earlier in the day, Martini had met with Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau at the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem. Following the meeting, Martini told reporters that Pope John Paul 11 had a great desire to come to the Holy Land during the Millennium, but he also suggested that there might be conditions which could prevent a papal visit.

'The pope very much desires to visit and hopes that circumstances will make this possible,' Martini said.

Following the meeting with the chief rabbi, Lau said that Martini had spoken to him of the great hope of the Millennium, but that Lau himself had been less optimistic. Lau said that he had recalled to the cardinal that even now,- at the end of the 20th century, there was a surge of antisemitic movements in France, Germany, and Austria. In Russia, Lau noted, the same synagogue had been burned down twice by a group which called itself a writers' association. A million children lost their lives in the former Yugoslavia, he said.

'I told him I wished I could share his optimism,' Lau said, but he added that 'with people like Carlo Maria Martini, one can reach understanding.'

Yesterday evening Martini was due to visit Yad Vashem with a group of his people in a visit to which he attributed considerable importance.