Pope Francis made a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Friday. The spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics silently reflected, met with Jewish and Christian survivors of the death camp, and left a note in the guestbook, which read: “Lord, have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much cruelty!” There’s a lot to be said about…
Seated on a bench near the gate to the Auschwitz death camp site in Poland, Pope Francis prayed in silence on Friday in tribute to the 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, killed there by Nazi occupiers during World War Two. The third pope to visit Auschwitz and the first not to have lived…
Pope Francis will visit the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau during a visit to Poland on July 29, the Vatican said on Thursday. Both of Francis’s immediate predecessors, Pope Benedict, a German, and Pope John Paul, a Pole, also visited the site during their pontificates. Nazi German occupying forces established the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi camp during…
Pope Francis wished the Jewish community of Rome a happy Passover on Thursday and asked the chief rabbi to pray for him. In a message addressed to Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, Pope Francis sent his “most heartful wishes for the feast of Passover,” referring to the Jews as God’s “beloved people.” The Catholic…
Pope Francis said on Saturday that his meeting with Bernie Sanders, contesting the Democratic candidacy for the U.S. Presidency, was not meddling in politics and that anyone who thought otherwise should “look for a psychiatrist.” Sanders and the pope met briefly on Saturday morning at the Vatican guest house where Francis lives and where Sanders…
ROME — Pope Francis will visit Auschwitz during a trip to Poland in late July. According to a schedule released over the weekend, the pontiff will visit the former Nazi death camp on July 29 during a five-day visit to Poland to mark the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day. Main Youth Day events are to…
In a brief audience at the Vatican Wednesday, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach urged Pope Francis to condemn current day anti-Semitism in Europe and acts of hatred directed at Israel. Boteach, who gained national recognition as the rabbi to the stars, told the Forward that during the short conversation with Pope Francis, he asked the pontiff to…
In 1986, Pope John Paul II made history by paying a visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited that synagogue again. In 2016, Pope Francis visited for the third time. As our ancient rabbis were fond of saying — and as Rome’s current chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni pointed out during…
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