Reconciliation in Rome

Pope John Paul II crossed the Tiber on Sunday to pray, as no Pope has done since the first, in the Roman Synagogue. With the gesture of that visit he gave fresh commitment to reconciliation, to close relations between Christian and Jew, to uncompromising opposition to anti-Semitism in every form, in every place.

There would have been more satisfaction had this extraordinary event included, as the Jewish host committee had hoped, an apology for the persecutions of the past, for many of the most unspeakable crimes against Jews over the millennia were the work of Christians done in the name of a terribly mistaken affirmation of Christianity.

But the Pope made no secret of those crimes, recalling the words of the second Vatican Council deploring “the hatred, persecutions and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at any time by anyone.” And he repeated those last words: “By anyone.” Furthermore, he elaboratedthe council decision that finally corrected centuries of error during which a collective blame for the death of Christ had been imputed to the Jews.

There were, with him in the synagogue, reminders of what anti-Semitism can lead to. Our correspondent, Don A. Schanche, reported that 40 survivors of Auschwitz and Dachau prayed with the Pope and applauded his firm rejection of anti-Semitism.

In his gesture of reconciliation, the Pope spoke to all Jews and all Christians with an appeal for joint commitment to the heritage, values and commitments that they share. He said:

“In a society which is often lost in agnosticism and individualism and which is suffering the bitter consequences of selfishness and violence, Jews and Christians are the trustees and witnesses of an ethic marked by the Ten Commandments, in the observance of which man finds his truth and freedom.”