The Vatican Mea Culpa, Auschwitz

The Vatican does not ordinarily concern itself with the precise living arrangements of 14 nuns. But the controversy that erupted this year over a small Carmelite convent on the edge of Poland's Auschwitz death camp had threatened to bring an end to a chapter of ecumenism, initiated by the Catholic Church two decades ago, with Judaism. The presence of the five-year- old cloister struck Jews and even some Catholics as an insensitive intrusion into a setting that will forever symbolize the Holocaust; 4 million people died there, an estimated 2.5 million of them Jews. Last week, after repeatedly dismissing the issue as a local matter, the Holy See finally % intervened to express its strong support for relocating the convent.

A panel of four Cardinals and representatives of Jewish organizations agreed in 1987 to move the nuns into an interfaith prayer center outside the death camp. But no new facility was built. After Jews demonstrated at the convent in July, Poland's Primate, Jozef Cardinal Glemp, retaliated with criticism that many found profoundly insensitive, if not anti-Semitic. He also suggested that the 1987 agreement should be renegotiated.

The Vatican did not directly order Glemp to start work on the prayer center, but the statement issued by the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism declared that such a facility would "contribute in an important way" to good relations between Catholics and Jews. Moreover, it said, "the Holy See is prepared to contribute its own financial support." While the statement was carefully worded to preserve local authority, it was an indication that Pope John Paul II, himself a Pole, had finally decided to step in. Said a Vatican official: "He didn't write it, but he approved it with great satisfaction."

At first it appeared that Glemp might defy Rome's wishes. He told reporters that it sounded like "a forced resolution, and I don't think that would be a very positive way." Two days later, however, the Cardinal signed a letter to Sir Sigmund Sternberg, chairman of the International Council of Christians and Jews, still complaining of "shrill voices" but promising to reinstate the 1987 agreement. "It is essential not only to move the convent outside the perimeter of the site, but also to set up the new ((interfaith)) cultural center," said Glemp. "This will help us to continue the dialogue that is so dear to us." Timing and other details were left fuzzy, but the festering Auschwitz dispute was apparently settled, for the second time.