Israeli, Vatican reps to resume stalled negotiations in mid-February

Published: 2005-01-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Israeli and Vatican representatives expect to resume stalled negotiations in mid-February on a series of thorny issues regarding the legal and financial status of church institutions in the Holy Land. The meeting will come a month after Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote two sharply worded letters complaining of an apparent "lack of commitment" on the part of the Israeli government in their negotiations with the Vatican. In his letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, posted on the USCCB Web site, Bishop Skylstad asked the U.S. government to intervene with Israel to help get the talks moving again. In December, Vatican delegation members said they were astonished when, at the last minute, the Israeli government canceled a meeting aimed at finalizing taxation issues for church entities. The members voiced frustration with the on-again, off-again pace of the talks. A scheduled Vatican-Israeli meeting in mid-January was postponed for a month, a development that the Vatican did not necessarily see as negative. Bishop Skylstad also wrote to Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, with a similar message. In that letter, also on the bishops' Web site, he urged the government of Israel to move the negotiations forward "expeditiously and effectively."

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