“A blessing to one another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People”

(Vatican Radio) “A blessing to one another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People” is the title of an exhibition showing in the Vatican’s Charlemagne Wing.

Scheduled to last until September 17, the exhibit was previously displayed in a number of state capitals in the USA where it received more than a million visitors.

“A blessing to one another” illustrates the steps Pope Saint John Paul II took to improve the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, and reflects the continuing relevance of the conciliar declaration “Nostra Aetate”, in which the Catholic Church expresses her appreciation for other religions and reaffirms the principals of universal fraternity, love and non-discrimination.
Dr William Madges, one of the exhibition curators, spoke to Vatican Radio about the event.

Listen to the interview: 

Madges explains the exhibit is divided into four sections and consists of photographs, videos, recordings and other interactive sources.

The first section illustrates Karol Wojtyla's early years in his birthplace Wadowice, what would become a lifelong friendship with the young Jew Jerzy Kluger, and the relations between Catholics and Jews in Poland during the decade 1920 to 1930. 

The second section is dedicated to the Pope's university years in Krakow, and his work not far from his friends in the Ghetto who knew the horrors of the Shoah. 

The third describes his priestly and episcopal life, Vatican Council II and the change of direction it represented in relations between Jews and Christians, and the close link between the cardinal archbishop of Krakow and the Jewish community in his archdiocese.

The final section considers the figure of Wojtyla as the Successor of Peter, his visit to the Synagogue of Rome, and his trip to Israel in the year 2000 when he left a prayer in the Western Wall asking for divine forgiveness for the treatment that Jews had received in the past and reaffirming the Church's commitment to a path of fraternal continuity with the People of the Covenant.
 
Visitors to “A blessing to one another” are invited to write a prayer to be placed in a reproduction of the Wall. They will be gathered and deposited in the Western Wall without being read.

For more information about the exhibition click here.