Pope Benedict visits Rome Synagogue

(January 18, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday visited the Synagogue of Rome, the third Jewish temple he has visited as a Pontiff. The Pontiff placed flowers before the memorials of two of the darkest moments in the history of the Jewish Community of Rome: one commemorating the deportation of over 1000 Jews to Nazi death camps in 1943; the other marking the 1982 terrorist attack on the synagogue, in which a two-year-old child was killed, and more than 40 others were injured. Pope Benedict, the second Pontiff to visit the Synagogue of Rome after Pope John Paul II in 1986, recalled the horror of the Shoah and proposed a greater cooperation between Jews and Christians, united by the Ten Commandments and committed to witness to the one God and to reawaken the desire for transcendence in society. The German-born pontiff said the Church has begged forgiveness for the failings of Catholics that contributed to the "scourge of anti-Semitism," and hoped that "these wounds be healed forever," and “every misconception and prejudice” be overcome. Pope Benedict defended his predecessor Pope Pius XII against critics, telling the audience that the Vatican worked quietly to save Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Many Jews object to Pope Benedict promoting Pope Pius XII toward sainthood, contending the wartime pope didn't do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. The Vatican has maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives. While he didn't mention Pius by name, Benedict told Jewish leaders in the synagogue that the Vatican «itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way.»