JERUSALEM (CWNews.com) - Israel's leading Ashkenazi rabbi said on Monday that if Pope John Paul II wants to meet with him during a visit to the Holy Land next month, the pontiff will have to come to him.

    Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau rejected plans to have him and the chief Sephardic rabbi meet the Holy Father at the Western Wall at the Temple Mount as demeaning and said the Pope should come to one of their offices in Jerusalem. "He will come to meet us in a place convenient for him for reasons of health and for reasons of security," Lau told Israel's Channel Two TV.

    The plans had apparently been brought to Lau's attention by Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, who represents Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern descent. Ashkenazi Jews are of European descent.

    An official of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land said the program is not yet finalized, and the Holy See will take into account the sensitivities of the Jewish and Muslim leaders whom the Pope is to meet during his pilgrimage March 20-26.