Still Running Off at the Keyboard

Days after a delegation of Austrian bishops were turned away from the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Holy See diplomat Archbishop Pietro Sambi has admitted that ties between the Vatican and Israel were better before there were diplomatic relations.

"If I must be frank, the relations between the Catholic Church and the state of Israel were better when there were no diplomatic ties," Archbishop Sambi is quoted as saying in an interview last week with online publication Terrasanta.net.

"The Holy See decided to establish diplomatic relations (in 1993) with Israel as an act of faith, leaving to later the serious promises to regulate concrete aspects of the life of the Catholic community and the Church" in Israel, Sambi told the paper, according to an International Herald Tribune report.

Blaming an "absence of political will", Sambi complained that the Knesset, Israel's legislature, has failed to give necessary approval to various accords that had been signed by both sides, and noted that an impasse over taxes has been discussed on and off for nearly 10 years without resolution.

"Everyone can see what kind of trust you can give to Israel's promises," Sambi said.

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