Edward Cassidy

Delicate maneuvering is under way along the hushed corridors of Vatican diplomacy in the aftermath of the momentous meeting here between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Delicate maneuvering is under way along the hushed corridors of Vatican diplomacy in the aftermath of the momentous meeting here between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Pope John Paul II appointed an Australian archbishop and veteran diplomat Tuesday as his main negotiator with the Russian Orthodox Church over the thorny issue of Ukrainian Catholics. Archbishop Edward Cassidy, 65, the Pope's deputy secretary of state for the last 17 months, was named to head the Vatican's Bureau for Christian Unity, a key position in Roman Catholic attempts to improve relations with the Russian church.

The Vatican said it welcomed last week's action by world Lutherans that the 16th century condemnation of Roman Catholicism by Protestant reformers no longer applies. But the Vatican's top official for Christian unity rebuffed a Lutheran affirmation that a consensus on the key doctrine of justification exists between Catholics and Lutherans. "The Catholic Church is . . .

Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops from 13 regions of the world will meet next week near Toronto to review three decades of formal dialogue between the two branches of Christianity and to consider future steps. The closed-door strategy sessions will be chaired by Anglicanism's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders have agreed to work together to combat rising anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and to forge a closer relationship between the two religions after a recent period of friction. The agreement was announced Thursday after a four-day meeting in Prague between the Vatican's Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations.

Re "Vatican Apology on Holocaust Too Vague, Some Say," March 17: Cardinal Edward J. Cassidy called the Vatican act of repentance "more than an apology." This might be a classic case of two cultures' confusion caused by different language. I believe the report and its "more than an apology" is directed toward the Jews. If this is the case, the Vatican should be sensitive to these language differences. If the report is truly meant to be an apology to the Jews, then Pope John Paul II should clarify and use the words, "We apologize to the Jewish people and the Jewish nation for the inaction of the Catholics."

Pope John Paul II appears to be close to delivering on a 1987 pledge that the Vatican would assess Catholic treatment of Jews during the Holocaust and church teaching that some contend fostered anti-Semitism. The tract on one of the most sensitive and complicated issues confronting the church is being produced by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the watchdog Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, have once again stirred the Catholic waters with their recent statements on dissent in the Roman Catholic Church.

Building on its ties with Israel and its effort to reconcile Roman Catholics and Jews, the Vatican celebrated Hanukkah for the first time Tuesday, lighting a candle in a sheltered garden where popes have strolled for centuries. "There is much darkness in the world around us. There is much need of light," declared Cardinal Edward Cassidy before lighting the candle on Pope John Paul II's behalf, shielded from a late afternoon drizzle by an aide holding an umbrella.

More than 450 years after a rancorous split that spawned mutual condemnations and cost untold lives in religious wars, Lutherans and Roman Catholics are poised to declare that the central issue leading to the 16th century Protestant Reformation no longer divides the two faiths.