Jewish group optimistic about Vatican-Jewish ties
The Associated Press
Posted: Monday, Feb. 09, 2009

VATICAN CITY Representatives of the World Jewish Congress say they are optimistic about Vatican-Jewish ties after meeting with top Vatican officials following a dispute over a Holocaust-denying bishop.

Jewish groups had expressed outrage last month after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, who had claimed that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust.

But last week, they applauded after the Vatican demanded that Williamson recant before being admitted as a bishop into the church.

On Monday, the World Jewish Congress' deputy secretary-general, Maram Stern, and Richard Prasquier, president of the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF, met with Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official responsible for relations with Jews.