Pope Francis has made his first visit to a synagogue as pontiff and greeted Rome’s Jewish community in a show of interfaith friendship last Sunday.
Francis’ visit is continuing a tradition that began with St John Paul II in 1986 and continued with Benedict XVI in 2010. It also highlighted the 50th anniversary of the landmark shift in Christian-Jewish relations that was represented by the second Vatican council. Francis joined a standing ovation when Holocaust survivors wearing striped scarves reminiscent of their camp uniforms were singled out for attention at the start of the ceremony.
The council document “Nostra Aetate” changed the Catholic church’s relations with Jews by repudiating the centuries-old charge that Jews as a whole were responsible for the death of Christ.
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