Pope's Will Points to Future Ties with Jews-Rabbi

[Joey_Ramone]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=globalNews&storyID=2005-04-08T102246Z_01_L08500581_RTRIDST_0_BIGSTORY-POPE-JEWS-DC.XML

Toaff, who welcomed the Pope on his ground-breaking visit to the city's synagogue in 1986, said in interviews with Italian newspapers published on Friday that he was surprised to be named along with two Roman Catholic prelates.

John Paul, the first pope to set foot in a synagogue, is seen as the pontiff who most helped heal Jewish rifts with the Christian world after the Holocaust.

"It is a very important, moving fact that I did not expect," Toaff told the daily La Repubblica. "It is a significant and profound gesture for Jews. But I think it is also an indication to the Catholic world."

Toaff said: "Pope Wojtyla wanted to indicate a road aimed at further destroying all the obstacles that have divided Jews and Christians through the centuries."

Toaff, who attended the Pope's funeral on Friday, said he hoped the next pope would uphold John Paul II's legacy and "do even better ... But it is unlikely that there will be someone else like him. Even if we are optimistic, I see many difficulties in finding a successor of his stature."...

Seeing some of the anti-Jewish posts by supposed "Catholics" I thought I'd post this.

[arminius]

I think building bridges between the christian and islamic world would be a lot more relevant these days than worrying about the jews fate of 60 years ago.

[nachi88]

I think building bridges between the christian and islamic world would be a lot more relevant these days than worrying about the jews fate of 60 years ago.

yes that would be a good idea... But that shouldnt be done at the cost of our relations with jews.

Also, haing better relations with buddhists and hindus and orthodoxy is also very important.

[JayeMTee88]

I hadn't heard about this, thanks for posting. It's good to see that happening...

[Joey_Ramone]

I think building bridges between the christian and islamic world would be a lot more relevant these days than worrying about the jews fate of 60 years ago.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=53421

VATICAN CITY - After two decades of contact and dialogue with the Islamic world under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican is rethinking an outreach program that critics say is diluting Catholicism and has brought almost no benefits to beleaguered Catholic minorities in Muslim countries...

...Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said the next pope might more emphatically demand rights for Christian minorities in Islamic countries and the freedom of all people to choose their faith...