Catholics must reject anti-Semitism.

Rome--Pope John Paul II has once again insisted that Christians cannot brook anti-Semitism. "The Christian must realize that as a follower of Christ he becomes a descendant of Abraham," the Pope said, adding that, with this intimate conviction the Christian "cannot allow that a Jew, just because he is a Jew, is deprecated or, worse, mistreated."

The Holy Father made his remarks to the Pontifical Biblical Commission as it met in Rome mid-April to discuss the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, between Judaism and Christianity.

The tendency to make a complete separation between the Old and New Testaments can be a source of confusion, the Pope said, and can create the "impression that Christians have nothing in common with Jews."

Bishop Vittorio Fusco, a member of the Commission, said that another source of confusion is to misunderstand anti-Semitism. It is "a political fact, with pagan rather than Christian origins," he said in an interview on Vatican radio.

The current Jewish interpretation of anti-Semitism, however, seems to be so all-encompassing that it is becoming counterproductive. An example of this came in the same week as the Pope's remarks, when a Jewish advocacy group demanded that the Vatican withdraw a postage stamp it claimed was anti-Semitic. The stamp, one of a series of four, depicts a medieval print of Jesus talking to Jews. The print is taken from a manuscript which shows the Jews of that day wearing the pointed hats of the Roman ghetto. The Simon Wiesenthal Center's European bureau regards the hats as "discriminatory" and said the stamp violates the international standards of the Universal Postal Union.