Agreement between Israel and the Holy See close?

ROME – On June 3-4, a new meeting between Israel and the Holy See concerning Church property in Israel will be held in Rome. According to Vatican Insider, the Holy-See/Israeli Bilateral Commission after 14 long years of negotiations could reach, a final agreement that determines the legal and economic status of Church institutions in the Holy Land.

The two states could, in fact, be on the verge of reaching an agreement on disputes relating to the property of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, according to Vatican Insider (an independent newspaper, a project of the daily “La Stampa”, dedicated to informing the world of the Vatican).

The Holy See published on January 30, a joint statementof the Standing Committee stating that bilateral negotiations on Article 10 (§ 2) on “issues of property, economic and fiscal policies, concerning, in general, the Catholic Church in Israel or even Catholic institutions” experienced “a new constructive stage.” In an interview with the RIS Agency (Religious Information Service) on January 8, the Apostolic Nuncio in Israel, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, displayed a “cautious optimism” about the possibility of a tax treaty between the Holy See and Israel. Everything suggests that negotiations have never been so near to a conclusion.

We must therefore await the next plenary session in the Vatican to be held next week. The venue for meetings have been alternating between Rome and Jerusalem.