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John Paul II’s Letter to a Jewish Friend: The Heart-Rending Story of Two Polish Boys Divided by World War II, Reunited by Love by Gian Franco Svidercoschi The Crossroad Publishing Company, 108 pages, $13.13 In April, when Pope John Paul II became Saint John Paul the Great, admirers recalled the late pontiff’s affinity for the…
(JTA) — Popes John Paul II and John XXIII are being declared saints of the Roman Catholic church on April 27, which is also the eve of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a coincidence but a notable one. These two post-Holocaust pontiffs revolutionized relations between Catholics and Jews, fostering interfaith dialogue and embedding…
The late Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, who will be made saints on Sunday, did so much to end two millennia of Catholic anti-Semitism that a Jewish human rights group calls them “heroes to the Jewish people”. Both pontiffs marked the world’s largest church in such varied ways that most Roman Catholics would…
Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, who played key roles in fostering Catholic-Jewish relations, will be canonized as saints. The ceremony will take place next April 27, the Vatican announced Monday. Polish-born John Paul, who reigned from 1978 to 2005, made bettering Catholic-Jewish relations a cornerstone of his papacy. John XXIII, who reigned…
The Vatican has recently announced that two popes who were pioneers in Christian-Jewish relations — John XXIII and John Paul II — are leading candidates for canonization as saints in the Roman Catholic Church. John Paul II was, of course, the pope who followed in the steps of John XXIII in his forthright condemnation of…
Pope John Paul II, the globe-trotting pontiff who led the Catholic Church for nearly 27 years, and Pope John XXIII, who called the reforming Second Vatican Council, will be declared saints, the Vatican said on Friday. The Vatican said Pope Francis had approved a second miracle attributed to John Paul, a Pole who was elected…
Even before he utters his first words in public, the new pope who emerges from the conclave this week will send Roman Catholics around the world a message encoded in the name he chooses. It may not be one they immediately understand. Picking an unlikely one from the distant papal past – for example, Hilarus…
Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world with his announcement that he will step down at the end of February. Though resignations are permitted by a little known paragraph of canon law, no pope has submitted one in six centuries. Historians will now begin asking about Benedict’s legacy. In the field of Jewish-Christian relations he will…
