It’s like a scene from Jurassic Park. A prehistoric creature thought to be merely a fossil suddenly rears its head above the foliage and roars.

Fr Peter Gumpel ‘raps’ the Israeli Ambassador to the Vatican and ‘chastises’ him for merely “suggesting that the Church should delay the cause for beatification of Pope Pius XII.”

Father Peter Gumpel, SJ, said that the Israeli envoy had been "totally irresponsible" to suggest that the cause should be delayed because of complaints that the former Pope did not take action to stop the Holocaust.

83 year old Gumpel works at the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He was already middle aged when the Second Vatican Council took place, marking the start of a change in Catholic attitudes towards Jews.

Although he denies being anti-Semitic, he sometimes seems to be a living fossil of the old Catholic ideas.

He gets visibly angry when he brings up the accusation that he himself is anti- Semitic. "This is one of the foulest things, even worse than some (who) have wanted to accuse me of being a Nazi," he says.

In fact, Gumpel's anti-Nazi credentials "are beyond question", says Ronald Ryclak, an American law professor who has consulted Gumpel for two books largely favourable to Pius.

It is possible to be both anti-Nazi and anti-Semitic, and one has to wonder about some of Gumpel’s statements in recent years.

Here he is in 2000:

"It is a fact that the Jews have killed Christ. This is an undeniable historical fact," Gumpel told CBC.

And here he is again, attacking Jewish members of a joint commission to examine Vatican WWII archives and and arousing a protest by the ADL.

The old dinosaur emits what appears to be his characteristic cry again in 2002

“It is also true that from the Jewish side, hurtful things have been said and done to Christians. I personally believe it would be helpful if the Jewish community would also apologize.”

He also believes "Jews should apologize for, and disown," passages from the Talmud which few, apart from Jewish scholars of that work, are likely to have read and which have no influence on attitudes towards Christians.

One example from our interview: “I am all in favor of yearly memorials of the Shoah. But there are other things to be considered as well, others who suffered, 50 million people died in the war. Poles were killed, gypsies were killed, homosexuals were killed, 3,000 Catholic priests were killed. We should not single out a particular group.”

Odd how anti-Semites like to say that, isn’t it? 6 million is more than a 'group'.

And Gumpel raises his prehistoric head again in 2004. Remember the controversy over the anti-Jewish elements in Mel Gibson’s film, which were largely inspired by the ‘visions’ of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich?

The Catholic News Service reported that Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit in Rome who has championed her cause, said that in making the decision to beatify her, the Vatican ignored her writings.

“She is being judged not on the basis of what she has written but, as always, on the basis of her virtues,” Gumpel was quoted as saying.

Told that the Vatican is saying it ignored her writings in deciding to beatify Sister Emmerich, Foxman said in an interview, “How do you beatify the good and ignore the bad?”

Maybe Gumpel can’t really tell the difference.