Tagged Jewish-Catholic relations

What Pope Francis synagogue visit says about Catholic-Jewish relations

Pope Francis, left, greeting the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, during a papal visit to the city’s synagogue, Jan. 17, 2016. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
January 19, 2016 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA

(JTA) – When Pope Francis crossed the Tiber River to visit the Great Synagogue of Rome on Sunday, he became the third pontiff to do so. But his 1.5-mile journey to the towering Tempio Maggiore showed that what was once unthinkable is now the norm. “According to the juridical… Read more »

Will Vatican’s Palestine reference impact Jewish-Catholic ties?

Pope Francis greeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the pope leaves St. Peter's Square at the end of a canonization ceremony in Vatican City, May 17, 2015. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
May 20, 2015 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – When considering the Vatican’s creep toward recognition of Palestinian statehood, think “Israel-Vatican” and not “Jewish-Catholic,” say Jewish officials involved in dialogue with the church. A May 13 announcement on an agreement regarding the functioning of the church in areas under Palestinian control raised eyebrows in its reference… Read more »

At JTS, Cardinal Dolan says Catholic-Jewish relations are strong
May 8, 2015 /

NEW YORK (JTA) — A half-century ago this year, the Catholic Church issued a landmark document that decried anti-Semitism and asserted that Jews could not be blamed for killing Jesus. The effect: Long-fraught relations between Catholics and Jews were dramatically improved. To mark 50 years since the detente, New… Read more »

Becoming saints: Two popes who revolutionized Jewish-Catholic relations
April 28, 2014 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA
Pope John Paul II places a letter between the stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall on March 26, 2000. (Amos Ben Gershom/Israel Government Press Office via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Popes John XXIII and John Paul II are being declared saints of the Roman Catholic church on April 27, the day that is also the eve of Yom Hashoah.  It’s a coincidence but a notable one.  These two post-Holocaust pontiffs revolutionized relations between Catholics and Jews, fostering… Read more »

Benedict’s papacy: a period of close Jewish relations with occasional bumps
February 11, 2013 / Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA
Pope Benedict XVI praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, May 12, 2009. (Flash90/JTA)

ROME (JTA) — Pope Benedict XVI’s eight-year reign as head of the world’s 1 billion Catholics sometimes was a bumpy one for the Vatican’s relations with Israel and the wider Jewish community. But it was also a period in which relations where consolidated and fervent pledges made to continue… Read more »

Exhibit on Pope, Jews prompts JFSA bus trip
October 14, 2011
Pope John Paul II visits Rome’s Great Synagogue with Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff in April 1986, the first recorded papal visit to a synagogue.

The Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is sponsoring a bus trip to Phoenix on Tuesday, Nov. 29 to attend the exhibit, “A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People.” The 2,000 square foot, multi-media traveling exhibit chronicles the friendship of… Read more »