VATICAN CITY - The Vatican sought to calm Jewish anger yesterday over the pope's meeting with a prominent Polish priest accused of anti-Semitism, declaring the encounter did not imply any change in the Church's desire for good relations with Jews.

The Vatican issued the assurances after Pope Benedict XVI's brief meeting Sunday with the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, which drew protests from worldwide Jewish organizations.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said the pope has spoken out often against anti-Semitism, and has frequently expressed the desire for close relations between Catholics and Jews.

Benedict visited a synagogue in his native Germany shortly after assuming the papacy in 2005, and is scheduled to stop at a monument in Vienna for Holocaust victims during a trip to Austria next month.

Photos showing the pope at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Rydzyk, along with two other Polish priests, were published in Polish newspapers on Tuesday.

Vatican officials said the three were brought to the pope, along with other pilgrims, after the pontiff's weekly public blessing Sunday at his summer home.

Rydzyk, who runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic station Radio Maryja, was allegedly caught on tape suggesting that Jews are greedy, and that Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbyists.

The remarks allegedly were made in the spring, but they only surfaced in July in the weekly magazine Wprost. Rydzyk has rejected accusations of anti-Semitism, and said he didn't intend to offend anyone.

"There should be no place in the Church for someone who spreads anti-Semitism, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, following the pope's meeting with Rydzyk.

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