VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has addressed one of the largest groups of rabbis and Jewish leaders ever to visit the Vatican and praised their efforts to promote inter-religious dialogue.
The 84-year-old Pope, who has vastly improved relations with Jews, granted an audience for some 160 members of the U.S- based Pave the Way Foundation, whose mission is to improve religious understanding.
Most of the participants at the audience were rabbis and synagogue cantors, or singers, from the United States.
The worldwide Jewish community considers the current Pope one of the best friends it has ever had. He was the first Pontiff ever to visit a synagogue or a concentration camp and has repeatedly condemned all forms of anti-Semitism.
During the audience in the Vatican’s frescoed Clementina Hall, several of the cantors sang a special Hebrew blessing for the Pope, calling him a "dear friend" of the Jewish people.
"You’ve defended Jewish people at every opportunity ... you’ve denounced anti-Semitism as a sin against God and humanity," Gary Krupp, the foundation’s president, told him.
"This tone of reconciliation has been a cornerstone of your papacy and your relations with the Jewish people. Your Holiness thank you, thank you, thank you. Shalom, Shalom, Shalom," he said.
In his brief address to the group, the Pope noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark 1965 Second Vatican Council declaration Nostra Atate (In Our Times).
The declaration repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Christ.