Civil society initiatives meant to protect St. Joseph Cathedral in Bucharest against sharing the neighborhood with a 74 meter high building are getting closer to a denouement in favor of both the historical monument and Bucharest in general. The Senate committee in charge of the Cathedral Plaza issue recommended the Romanian government should stop the project at once. The government decided yesterday to establish an interministy committee to analyze the Senate's suggestions and present the conclusions in December 10 the latest. At the same time the Vatican issued an official press release on the special state the Catholic Church in Bucharest was in. The Pontiff's press department informed yesterday that the Vatican was interested in a solution to this difficulty that would be in keeping with the EU Treaty on the preservation of the cultural patrimony and with the Senate committee's conclusions. Hans-Gert Pottering, a head of the EPP group in the parliament of Europe and also a future president of the latter institutions, had written a letter to the President of Romania Traian Basescu, explaining that authorities should prevent the building of such a high edifice close to an important religious location. (D.E.)