Jewish activists criticized Pope John Paul II for meeting Saturday with a Polish priest who had been banned from the pulpit for a year for making anti- Semitic remarks. The meeting with Father Henryk Jankowski on the first day of the pope’s visit to his native Poland is “sending a clear message of insensitivity to Jews,” the Coalition for Jewish Concerns — Amcha, a New York- based direct-action group, and the Florida-based Shalom International said in a joint statement Sunday. A former chaplain to former Polish President Lech Walesa, Jankowski was barred from the pulpit in 1997 after he said Jews should have no place in Poland’s government. Last year, he warned voters in local elections to check if candidates were Jews or Russians before casting their votes.
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