Pope in the temple
January 17, 2010
"The silence of Pius XII before the Shoah, still hurts because something should have been done," said the president of Rome's Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici.
"Maybe it would not have stopped the death trains, but it would have sent a signal, a word of extreme comfort, of human solidarity, towards those brothers of ours transported to the ovens of Auschwitz," he said.
Pacifici urged the Vatican to open its archives and give historians access to documents which would shed light on the actions of the wartime pontiff.
Benedict XVI, however, defended the Vatican's position that the church was acting behind the scenes to help Jews.
"The Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way," the pope said in his speech at the synagogue.
As he started his landmark visit to Rome's main synagogue on Sunday, January 17, Benedict XVI paid homage to more than 1,000 Roman Jews deported to Nazi death camps.
The Catholic leader previously said his visit would open a "new phase along the irrevocable path of agreement and friendship" between Catholics and Jews.
Rome's chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni said the move was a sign that the Catholic Church wanted to "continue the dialogue."
Jewish community divided
But the visit came only four weeks after the German-born pontiff found himself at the center of a controversy that served rather to divide than bring together.
In December 2009, a papal decree bestowed the title "venerable" on World War Two-era Pius XII, thus putting him one step closer to sainthood.
The decision had resulted in an outcry by critics and Jewish communities around the world who accuse Pius XII of having failed to speak out against the Holocaust. Pius XII's papacy ran from 1939 until 1958.
Ahead of the visit to the synagogue, the president of Italy's assembly of rabbis, Giuseppe Laras, announced he would not attend the event and criticised Benedict for weakening the ties between the two religions.
Laras said the pope failed to show an "understanding of the feelings of the Jewish community."
Another controversial move by Pope Benedict XVI was the decision to speed rapprochement with a Catholic fraternity that includes Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson.
Benedict XVI is the second modern Pope to visit the Rome synagogue. His predecessor John Paul II first visited the place of worship in 1986 and at the time had been warmly welcomed for his efforts to mend tensions between the two religions.
Failed assassin to be released
Meanwhile, the man who tried to kill John Paul II in 1981 will be released on Monday from prison after spending almost three decades behind bars in Italy and Turkey.
Mehmet Ali Agca said he wants to travel to the Vatican to visit the tomb of John Paul II and to meet with the current pontiff.
Agca has announced he will sell the rights to his story so that it can be turned into a book and movie. He was a 23-year-old member of a militant far-right group when on May 13, 1981 he opened fire on John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome, seriously wounding the pope.
ai/AFP/EP
Editor: Toma Tasovac