New York, NY, January 3, 2005 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has learned that the Catholic World News has issued a correction and apology after a story on its Web site claimed that the official Vatican newspaper had strongly criticized Israel.  In a corrected version of the story, published on December 30, CWNews said that "a crucial error in translation caused a serious misinterpretation of the news."

Based on that information, ADL apologized to the editors of L'Osservatore Romano for an earlier statement that was critical of the newspaper.  In a letter to the editor-in-chief, Prof. Mario Agnes, the League said, "Because the report was picked up by other news media, we felt an urgent need to speak out.  Regrettably, we relied on the inaccurate CWNews report when we should have waited for a direct translation."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.