The church should return the stolen artifacts as they still belong to the Jewish people.
Excuse me, I'm pretty ignorant about this, which are these stolen artifacts you are talking about?
Daniele
It is believed that the Church has the stolen artifacts from the second Temple which emporor Titus brought back to Rome after the conquest of Jerusalem. They have the holy menorah and other artifacts.
http://www.southhead.org/South-Head-Weekly-News-18-July-2008/default.aspx
Ok, so you mean the sack and the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem made by the Romans...
I just want to point out that the "Church" didn't actually stole anything (at that time at least), because it didn't even exist, christians were actually persecuted in those centuries by the Romans themselves, they lived in horrid catacombs under Rome for centuries (after the sack of the temple) for not being captured and killed in the most brutal ways.
In general the romans were tolerant toward other cult/religion, there were synagogues in Rome or in roman territory that were builded B.C.E.! (Some are still there and function by the way) As you probably know there were large community of jews in Italy (B.C.E.) and the largest by far was the Roman one, some of the jews who lived in the republic/empire were very wealthy merchants and very influent people... Then of course, with the wars in the mid east, the position of the average jew in Rome became quite problematic.
Anyway the same kind of "religious tolerance" were reserved most likely to any other religion or cult, you had any kind of temple in the imperial age, in my city for example there is/was actually an Isis temple near the city center
The only cult/religion romans can't stand was christianity, because they see it as some kind of sect which ultimate goal was to take over the empire itself (and it happened).
This is to say that the "Romans" who sacked and destroyed the second temple were NOT the Roman Catholic Church, that's my opinion...
I mean if they were/are the same thing then why the Romans killed Peter and Paul (the founders of the RCC) and why they killed thousand of christians in the centuries after the destruction of Jerusalem?!
Anyway back to the artifacts, which are the more interesting topic: I don't really know about the scriptures you're talking about, but I can tell you that if the original Menorah still exist (which unfortunately I really doubt of) it would be beacuse the Church itself managed to protect it throught the centuries (it may have a sacred meaning for them too), because the Romans had few respect for other cultures (a part for the greeks maybe), but they had absolutely no respect for those that didn't submit to them, so after they took the Menorah to Rome along with the other treasures of Jerusalem, to show to the people of Rome the "success" of their campaign, it's actually quite probable that they didn't preserve it, why they would have to? As they did in many previous occasions, they used to celebrate then after the "party", they just melt precious metals items regardless the sacred value they may have had for other people...
It's a big timeframe from the destruction of Jerusalem to the time Romans became christians... It's very hard to imagine that such a precious artifacts could have survived, unless we believe in miracles (and we do, isn't it so?), so if the Menorah survived until the time when the Church actually take over the empire, then I'm sure they didn't destroyed it... Althought we have to take into account that Rome (and the Vatican) have been sacked countless times in the centuries, until these days, by pagans hordes and other christians nations; the Nazis where the last one to sack both the city and the Vatican itself...
So, as I said, if the Menorah still exist and is still in the Vatican (which I doubt unfortunately), well, believe it or not it means that the "Church" actually managed to proctect it to this day.
Anyway I agree with you, if the Church really has these other sacred artifacts I think this it's a good time to give them back to their original owners...
And I also don't understand why the Pope have to visit Israel... If the people of Israel don't want him there, for their reasons, he should stay home or visit somewhere else.
Daniele