The Vatican told Israel that it would not take orders from anyone, as a diplomatic row boiled over into the biggest challenge yet to face to Benedict's 100-day-old papacy.
The
Vatican also rejected claims that Benedict and his predecessor had
failed to condemn Palestinian attacks on Israelis over the
years.
"The Holy See cannot take lessons or instructions from any other
authority on the tone and content of its own statements," the
Vatican said.
Israel demanded the Vatican explain why Pope Benedict failed to
mention a deadly Palestinian attack in a speech voicing sympathy
for other nations struck by Islamist suicide bombers.
The row has proved the biggest challenge yet of Benedict's
100-day-old papacy.
Addressing the faithful, Benedict deplored the "death, destruction
and suffering in countries including Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and
Britain," and asked God to "stay the hands of assassins ... driven
by fanaticism and hate."
Israel's
Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Vatican ambassador to ask why
the sermon had not mentioned a July 12 suicide bombing by the
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad that killed five
Israelis.
Cries out to heaven
"The Pope's omission of this incident cries out to the heavens,"
the ministry statement said.
The Vatican said the Pope's words had been distorted and that he
had explicitly referred to more recent attacks, but the dispute has
refused to die down with an Israeli Foreign Ministry official
telling the Jerusalem Post that not condemning terrorism in Israel
had been Vatican policy for years.
The Vatican defended Pope John Paul, who died in April, saying he
had publicly condemned Palestinian attacks on "numerous" occasions,
and listing many of his comments.
The statement said the late pontiff was prevented from denouncing
every attack because the Jewish state sometimes followed with
retaliations that were "not always compatible with international
rights."
John Paul, while long a staunch supporter of the Palestinian
struggle for statehood, won Israeli hearts with decades of effort
to repair Catholic-Jewish ties severely tested by the
Holocaust.
Benedict has yet to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in
public, but he has vowed to continue working for interfaith
understanding, and this month said he would "give priority" to an
invitation from Sharon to visit Israel.
The German-born Pope is also scheduled to visit a synagogue during
his trip to Germany next month, marking the second time a pope
enters a Jewish place of worship in 2,000 years.
