c. 2005 Religion News Service

In a First, Israeli President to Visit Vatican

VATICAN CITY (RNS) President Moshe Katsav of Israel is due to visit Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Nov. 17, marking the first official visit by an Israeli head of state to the seat of Roman Catholicism.

Benedict, who as a boy was briefly forced to enlist in the Hitler Youth movement, appears to have invited Katsav to underscore dialogue between Catholicism and Judaism on the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, or “In Our Time.” Produced during the Second Vatican Council, the document denounced the notion that Jews were to blame for the death of Jesus Christ _ a belief that fueled centuries of conflict between the faiths.

“The visit is of great symbolic value,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

According to the Times of London, Oded Ben-Hur, Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See, called the visit “history in the making.”

The Vatican has not yet commented on the visit, which has not been officially announced.

Katsav, Israel’s ceremonial president, will make the visit 12 years after Jerusalem and the Holy See established diplomatic relations. Relations took another step forward when John Paul II visited Israel in 2000 and placed a hand-written note at the Western Wall expressing remorse for Christian hostility toward Jews.

Tensions increased in August after Israeli officials accused Benedict of omitting their country from a list of terrorist targets that included Britain, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt.

The rift appeared to heal, however, when Benedict visited a Jewish synagogue in Cologne during his first trip outside Italy.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Jewish Federation to Sell New York Space for $107 Million

NEW YORK (RNS) A major Jewish philanthropic organization announced it will sell off prime retail space in its Manhattan headquarters for $107 million.

UJA-Federation of New York says it has agreed to sell its 38,000-square-foot space at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue to Ponte Gadea, S.L., a Spanish-owned international real estate holding company. Proceeds from the sale will boost the agency’s $450 million endowment.

Given Manhattan’s booming real estate market, the agency’s officers felt increasing their endowment income would be more profitable than holding on to the property.

“It’s something that we hope will appreciate more over time than the real estate,” said Irvin Rosenthal, UJA-Federation’s chief financial officer.

Current interest rates and high demand for retail space made this a good time to sell, said other agency staff. The deal was announced Sept. 26.

UJA-Federation gives grants to more than 100 social service agencies, mostly in New York City, such as the Jewish Board of Child and Family Services and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Income from the endowment will support these grants, said Rosenthal.

The agency currently leases the property at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue to Gap Inc., whose Banana Republic and Gap stores have occupied the space for more than 20 years. The stores are being renovated and will remain in the space after the sale, according to a Gap spokesperson.

The busy street corner is host to prime real estate in Manhattan. The UJA-Federation property sits above a major subway hub and across from Bloomingdale’s department store and the gleaming new 55-story Bloomberg Tower, home to 105 luxury apartments and its own cluster of retail shops.

The sale comes as UJA-Federation renovates the glistening black building that has been its home for 51 years. The glazed-brick facade will be replaced, as will the old electrical and plumbing systems.

The retail condominium comprises 15 percent of the total building and is its only retail space. Outside companies will continue to lease commercial office space on the upper floors.

_ Nicole LaRosa

Catholic Churches in Mass. Push for Traditional Definition of Marriage

(RNS) Roman Catholic churches in Massachusetts have begun providing copies of a petition proposing a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Besides giving parishioners an opportunity to sign the petition, pastors have been asked to distribute brochures of the marriage initiative.

The effort is being coordinated statewide by Catholic Citizenship, a group that encourages American Catholics to exercise “faithful citizenship” by becoming politically involved and informed citizens.

The group’s marriage initiative effort has the support of Massachusetts bishops.

The Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Springfield diocese, sent pastors a letter in August requesting the petition be available and brochures distributed.

“People have a right to speak to the issue and the signature drive is the first critical step towards placing the issue on the 2008 statewide ballot. Help at the parish level is vital,” McDonnell wrote to pastors.

To get the proposal on the ballot, almost 66,000 signatures are required. Catholic Citizenship hopes to have the proposal on the 2008 ballot.

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow gays to marry and so far remains the only state to legally permit the practice.

_ Bill Zajac

Concerned It Might Offend Muslims, British Museum Removes Sculpture

LONDON (RNS) Out of concern it might offend Muslims in the wake of July’s suicide bombings, a London art museum has removed a sculpture made by one of Britain’s leading conceptual artists.

Tate Britain, London’s museum of British art, decided 84-year-old John Latham’s work might prove inappropriate in the tense atmosphere created by the July 7 suicide bombings in London.

The 1991 work, titled “God Is Great,” consists of a large sheet of glass in which copies of the Bible, the Talmud and the Quran are cut apart and apparently embedded.

Latham accused the gallery of “cowardice.”

He told The Observer, the London Sunday newspaper: “I think it’s a daft thing to do because, if they want to help the militants, this is the way to do it. It’s not even a gesture as strong as censorship; it’s just a loss of nerve on the part of the administration.”

Before deciding not to include the work in the exhibition, which opened Sept. 5 and runs until Feb. 28, Tate Britain “sought wide-ranging advice” which, according to a spokeswoman for the gallery, included talking to some leading Muslim scholars.

The gallery told the BBC that the work’s interpretation was not being questioned. “It is the act of cutting the books which causes us concern in light of the particular environment post 7 July,” it said.

Latham told the BBC that his work was “not offensive to anybody” and that it showed that “all religious teaching comes from the same source, whatever name you give to it.”

_ Robert Nowell

Quote of the Day: Texas Eagle Forum president Cathie Adams

“President Bush is asking us to have faith in things unseen. We only have that kind of faith in God.”

_ Cathie Adams, president of the Dallas-based conservative group Texas Eagle Forum, expressing skepticism about the lack of a legal paper trail illustrating Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ philosophy. Adams was quoted in The Washington Post.

MO/PH END RNS