Israel's former Prime Minister Shimon Peres meets Pope Benedict
(April 06, 2006) : Israel's former Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres met with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience on Thursday April 6th at the Vatican. Peres delivered a written note to the Pope from Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, repeating previous invitations for the Pontiff to visit the Holy Land. After the audience with the Holy Father, Peres, a senior member of Olmert's centrist Kadima party, also met with Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Pope Benedict has been following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in trying to improve Jewish-Catholic relations. Pope John Paul visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2000. The invitation for Pope Benedict to visit Israel first came in a July letter to the pope by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister who suffered a massive stroke. It was later repeated during Benedict's meetings at the Vatican last year with President Moshe Katsav and Israel's two chief rabbis.
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