Pope John Paul II described his visit to Rome’s main synagogue on April 13 as a “very deep” experience, “especially from a religious point of view.”
In a television interview Monday night, the Pontiff, the first Pope in history to enter a Jewish house of worship, said, “It was a deep emotional experience to enter that place which at least ideally, bring us back to the times of St. Peter and the first Christians.”
He said the visit “was made possible by the Second Vatican Council” more than 20 years ago and by its famous declaration, “Nostra Aetate” (Our Times), in which the Catholic Church repudiated Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
