rome | Despite ups and downs over the years, Pope John Paul II has made bettering relations with Jews a key platform of his 26-year papacy.
An international group of more than 100 rabbis, cantors and other Jewish leaders from all streams of Judaism thanked him this week for his efforts during a special private audience at the Vatican.
Dressed in white and seated in an upholstered wheelchair, the 84-year-old pontiff gave the group an enthusiastic welcome in the ornate Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. In his remarks, the pope noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Vatican’s landmark Nostra Aetate declaration, which rejected the charge that Jews collectively were responsible for the death of Jesus.
“May this be an occasion for renewed commitment to increased understanding and cooperation in the service of building a world ever more firmly based on respect for the divine image in every human being,” he said. “Upon all of you, I invoke the abundant blessings of the Almighty and, in particular, the gift of peace. Shalom aleichem.”
The group — which organizers said was the largest Jewish delegation to have a private audience with a pope — came to the Vatican under the auspices of the Pave the Way Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit that promotes interfaith understanding.
“You have defended Jewish people at every opportunity, as a priest in Poland and during your pontificate,” the Pave the Way president and founder, Gary Krupp of New York, told the pontiff.
The long-planned audience coincided with ongoing controversy over the Holocaust role of Pope Pius XII, and in particular over recent revelations that the Vatican tried to hold onto some Jewish children who had been baptized and placed in Catholic homes to save them from the Nazis. None of this debate, however, marred the festive atmosphere of the audience.
“This is the first time in history that rabbis representing all branches of Judaism from all over the world have come together to collectively thank Pope John Paul II and the church for all they have done to build bridges of understanding and mutual respect between Jews and Catholics,” Rabbi Jack Bemporad, director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding in Secaucus, N.J., said in a statement.