Programme for Pope Benedict's Sunday Trip to Synagogue

(January 16, 2010) During his visit to the Jewish community of Rome this Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI will honour the more than 1,000 victims of the Nazi deportation of 1943. According to Vatican Radio his first stop will be at the plaque that recalls the October 16, 1943, raid ordered by SS commander Herbert Kappler of occupied Rome, at the request of Berlin. More than 1,000 Roman Jews were arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Only 16 people, among them one woman, returned. The Holy Father will place flowers before the plaque honouring those victims. Then the Pontiff's will honour another victim of violence: a child who was killed in the 1982 terrorist attack on the synagogue. Stefano Tache, age 2, lost his life in that attack; 37 others were wounded. Pope Benedict XVI will be received at the foot of the stairs of the synagogue by Grand Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni. As they enter the synagogue, the choir will sing Psalm 126 and the Holy Father will greet civil authorities. After discourses from the presidents of Rome's and Italy's Jewish communities and the grand rabbi, the Pope will deliver his address. Before he returns to the Vatican, the Pontiff will meet privately with the grand rabbi and will also visit the Jewish Museum. Pope Benedict is following in the steps of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who became the first pontiff to set foot in a synagogue in Rome near the Tiber River in 1986. “It will be a meeting of peace, friendship and mutual respect,” said Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni. “But above all it will be an example of how to coexist even if he has differences.” However, this visit has brought in some division among the Italian Jews concerning Vatican’s decision to canonise Pope Pius XII. However Jewish leaders from around the world have travelled to Rome for the German-born Pope Benedict's third visit to a synagogue