Vatican City, Sep 14, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Israel's two chief rabbis met Pope Benedict XVI today to mark the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a document which emerged from the Second Vatican Council and which redefined Catholic-Jewish relations. The document denounces anti-Semitism and repudiates the charge that blames Jews as a people for Christ's death.
"Today,” Benedict XVI has asserted, “we must continue in the search of ways to fulfill the task of which I have spoken in my recent visit to the Synagogue of Cologne, to pass the torch of hope that God gave to the Hebrew as well as to the Christians, with the aid of God, we can construct a more just and pacific world in which all the men have equal citizenship".
The Pope then remembered the Holy Land and the "challenges" that local ecclesial communities "must face" and that "peace and religion must proceed together".
The Pontiff also has foretold that the diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See "will lead us to more solid and stable cooperation."