In late October, I reported on an interesting article on Israel365 News which hinted that the Roman Catholic Church is considering returning some items plundered from the Jewish temple in 70AD when it was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus.

Though the Roman Catholic Church has long denied it has any of these items in its possession, an MP with the Italian government suggested that the Roman Catholic Church does and may consider returning them to Israel.

Because of the massive response to this report, Harry Moskoff decided to write a follow-up to that original article for Israel365 News.

Moskoff serves as the Director of the Museum Exchange program for the Jewish Heritage Project based in the Vatican. He has been inundated with requests for information from around the world asking if this news is real or fake.

Here is an excerpt from his reply on Israel365 News:

The answer is that there’s a little of both, i.e., some genuine news, and some fake news.  In my capacity as Director of the Museum Exchange Program, Jewish Heritage Project (located at the Vatican in Rome), on the one hand, I’m flattered by so many reaching out, but on the other hand, I have to answer by shedding light on some difficult truths.  I have been in this fledgling position for approximately 2 years now, going back and forth to Rome and meeting with many of the Vatican Directors personally, including those in charge of the excavations underneath St. Peter’s Basilica, the Chief Prefect at the Dicastery for External Communications, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue (Catholic-Jewish relations), and Museum Directors – both past and present.  Not to mention all the appropriate and necessary Israeli Ambassadors silently involved. I have found that almost all of these officials are in agreement, at least in theory, of temporarily displaying ancient Jewish antiquities. 

Moskoff then added further clarification on the Catholic Church’s official position on whether it has vessels from the Jewish Temple stored away in its underground cellars.

While over the years, Vatican officials have denied having items from the Jewish Temple, this is no longer the case. More recently Roman Catholic officials have taken a more ambiguous stand stating that they can neither confirm nor deny that the church has any of these relics.

Moskoff writes:

The good news in this scenario is that the official Vatican position currently is that they neither confirm nor deny possessing any Herodian Temple objects like the golden Menorah, sacred tables, altars, priestly garments, and the like. This was said to me when I first attended the Apostolic Delegation of the Holy See where I was granted an exclusive interview with the Papal Nuncio, His Excellency Archbishop Illana at his residence on the Mount of Olives.  What he said is no doubt a step in the right direction because up until very recently and for centuries, it was simply a given that the Vatican Church denies possessing any of these items.  Another development worth mentioning is that incidents have been reported that concern high-ranking Vatican officials who were willing to reveal the location of these holy vessels to religious Jews before going on pension or resigning from their posts. Not just one or two, these encounters are apparently taking place in Rome, and even Paris.  

Moskoff added that the unnamed MP does not have conclusive proof that the Roman Catholic Church has items from the Jewish Temple, but he believes it does. Moskoff says that many others have made similar claims.

Secondly, Moskoff adds that if the Church does have items from the Jewish Temple, one of the biggest hindrances to returning them may be theological.

The Roman Catholic Church believes in replacement theology.

In a nutshell, this holds that because of Israel’s refusal to embrace Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, God has replaced Israel with the church. The church is now God’s chosen people, and it seems that returning the temple items would somehow validate Israel and the Jewish temple, and perhaps at the same time invalidate the Roman Catholic Church.

Now, the Roman Catholic Church does acknowledge that it has a considerable amount of what could be called Jewish relics in its archives. These items have been collected over the last 1,500 years or so.

According to Papal documents, some of these relics may have originated from ancient government sources. However, this does not automatically mean they are from the Jewish temple.

Moskoff who is also a documentary filmmaker is requesting that he be allowed to go into the Roman Catholic archives and film the Jewish relics that the Church has in its possession. He also suggested that the Roman Catholic Church put on an official exhibit of its Jewish relics, whatever they may be.

For the full article READ: Returning Temple Vessels From Italy?