Israeli ambassador to Vatican: Good relations despite controversy

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy, said Friday the Jewish state good relations with the Vatican despite a recent controversy over Pope Benedict XVI's decision to readmit an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust to the Roman Catholic Church. Lewy said that "the climate is good" and that there is "a lot of potential for the cooperation" between the Vatican and Israel. Lewy made his comments on the sidelines of the presentation of a catalogue of ancient Hebrew manuscripts that are kept at the Vatican library. He called the catalogue a "milestone" for Vatican-Israel cultural collaboration. The catalogue, compiled with the help of Jewish cultural institutions, lists around 800 manuscripts on subjects like religion, philosophy, astronomy, medicine and literature.