Monday, January 18, 2010

Pope gets warm welcome at Rome synagogue amid anger at Pius sainthood

Pope Benedict XVI was welcomed with applause Sunday in a visit to Rome's synagogue, which he said would improve relations between Catholics and Jews, many of whom object to his advancing Nazi-era pontiff Pius XII toward sainthood.

Benedict was greeted by Rome and international Jewish leaders as he arrived at the synagogue on the banks of the Tiber a short distance from the Vatican to begin the two-hour visit.

A split at the heart of Italy's Jewish community over the papal visit and a barely averted crisis in relations with the Vatican have done little to dampen the congregation's enthusiasm in welcoming the Pope.

Twenty-four hours before the pontiff's arrival, Sabbath prayers at the Rome synagogue resembled a movie set, with Italy's Chief Rabbi playing the role of director, assisted by a cohort of rabbis from across the country and around the world.

The synagogue's women's gallery was transformed into a press box for the occasion, expected to attract some 600 reporters. Plasma screens adorned the walls, while two television work-stations on either side of the Holy Ark - normally any synagogue's focal point - captured the rapt attention of the congregation's younger members.

"It looks like a scene from a movie," one older member said. "Let's just hope it has a happy ending."

As excitement over Benedict's arrival mounted over the past week, so did the tension. An announcement by the Vatican that it would expedite the process of making Pope Pius XII a saint provoked alarm among many Jews, sewing discord among Italy's top rabbis and casting doubt on whether the visit would take place at all. Moves to canonize Pius have angered some Jews, who they say failed to speak out against the Holocaust.

Last Thursday Italy's Chief Rabbi, Giuseppi Laras, announced his refusal to participate in the event, saying it was unlikely to be fruitful and censuring the Rome community for its part in the affair. His condemnation, widely reported in the global press, has embarrassed Jewish leaders in Rome.

Tempers frayed still further when a few hours before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath on Friday, Pope Benedict called publicly for unity between the Catholic Church and "Saint Pius XII", a hard-line conservative group that backs canonization of the controversial wartime pontiff and whose members include Richard Williamson and Florian Abrahamowicz - two priests at the center of a media storm last year when Pope Benedict ruled that they should be reinstated into the church, despite their apparent denial of the Holocaust.

In 2009 tensions with Jewish groups spiraled to the extent that the Vatican's spokesman, Federico Lombardo, was forced to reassure Jews publicly that "relations between Christians and Jews were not in dispute".

On the eve of the Pope's synagogue visit, Jewish leaders in Italy told Haaretz that they had ordered congregations to keep silent in fear of stoking a quarrel that could see senior figures in the Jewsih community resign.

As if all this were not enough, Abrahamowicz plans on Sunday to lead a group of fundamentalist Catholics in a protest against "religious relativism" in Verona, expected to inflame Jewish opinion still further. Meanwhile, a Jewish group, 'Exile '92', will hold a press conference outside the Italian parliament in Rome to call for the cancellation of Sunday's papal visit.

This will be Benedict's third synagogue visit, his first in Italy - Jewish congregations previously hosted him in Cologne and New York - and only the second time a Pope has crossed the River Tiber to a synagogue in Rome.

In 1983, Italy's then Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Tauf received Pope John-Paul II. This time it will be Renzo Gattegne, head of Rome's Jewish community, who will welcome the pontiff.

The reception may not be as warm as the Vatican might hope, however, with Gattegne expected to limit his address to formalities.
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