Religious Relations

Last week Jewish leaders, nationally and locally, agreed to meet with Pope John Paul II in Miami and here in Los Angeles. While the decision was carried by clear majorities, it was also marked by a distinct air of sadness and, in some quarters, cynicism. "How can we justify meeting with the man who honored (Austria President) Kurt Waldheim at the Vatican on June 25, and who failed to speak one word at the meeting about the Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews and thousands of innocent others?"

Nearly a month after Catholics and Jews signed a joint statement that underscored a new understanding on salvation, the document continues to cause controversy, and has driven a wedge between Jews and evangelicals in the nation's largest Protestant church. The Aug. 12 statement, signed by representatives of the U.S.

In biting remarks certain to escalate tensions between the Roman Catholic Church and Jewish leaders, the head of Los Angeles' Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced moves by Catholic leaders toward making Pope Pius XII a saint. Pius XII, whose papacy overlapped World War II, "sat on the throne of St. Peter in stony silence, without ever lifting a finger, as each day thousands of Jews from all over Europe were sent to the gas chambers, with his full knowledge," Rabbi Marvin J.

At churches in Baghdad, parishioners hung signs to say they disagreed with the pope. In Egypt, priests of the Orthodox Coptic Church denounced Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam and said they wished he had considered the reaction before speaking. In Lebanon, where bloody demonstrations erupted early this year over a Danish newspaper's caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, a Christian-Muslim dialogue committee asked imams to keep their Friday sermons calm.

In a defiant gesture rooted in the battle over homosexuality, two Third World Anglican archbishops on Sunday consecrated four conservative American priests as bishops. The elevation of the four priests on U.S. soil by foreign archbishops sent shock waves through the worldwide Anglican Communion and its U.S. member, the Episcopal Church. It was decried by the Archbishop of Canterbury as trespassing and brought the 2.3-million-member Episcopal denomination closer to formal schism.

Shoeless and dressed simply in white, Benedict XVI became only the second pope in modern history to enter a mosque when he prayed Thursday alongside a senior cleric in Istanbul's most majestic house of Islamic worship. The pope toured the cavernous 17th century Blue Mosque with the grand mufti of Istanbul, gazing overhead at its intricate tile work, in his most deliberate and concrete gesture yet of conciliation toward Muslims infuriated by his comments.

The abrupt dismissal of the Anti-Defamation League's regional director here has illuminated the growing power struggles between East and West Coast Jewry, as the fulcrum of influence over American Jewish life shifts from its historical center in New York. David Lehrer, the regional director who helped knit together Los Angeles' disparate communities during 27 years of wide-ranging human relations work, was dismissed from his post Dec. 21 by National Director Abraham Foxman in New York.

More than a millennium after it was sacked and burned in an era of religious fanaticism, Alexandria's library has risen again on the Mediterranean shore -- a reminder, as President Hosni Mubarak put it, that "cultural dialogue must be a substitute for violence in a world torn by conflict." The reopening of the library, once the world's greatest repository of scrolls and knowledge, marked the completion of a 20-year, $200-million project. Ceremonies held Oct.

Iraq's Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant Thursday for the country's leading Sunni Arab cleric, accusing him of colluding with insurgents, a potentially explosive charge that could exacerbate tensions between the country's warring sectarian groups and further divide a fragile national government. The move against Harith Dhari, head of the Muslim Scholars Assn.

The Vatican stood firm Tuesday on a decision to rehabilitate a Holocaust-denying bishop, even as Jewish leaders warned that the move will set back decades of Roman Catholic overtures to mend strained relations between the two faiths. The Vatican joined Jews and fellow Catholics in condemning the British bishop's assertions that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers.