Saying he intends to reinforce ties between Catholics and Jews during his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI capped the second day of his four-day visit to his native Germany yesterday with a visit to a Jewish synagogue that was destroyed by the Nazis.
Addressing an audience that included Holocaust survivors, the pontiff said, "I bow my head before those who suffered during the Shoah."
The pope's appeal for reconciliation between German Christians and German Jews was made at a rebuilt synagogue in Cologne that was put to the torch during the Nov. 9, 1938, nationwide Nazi attacks on homes, businesses, schools and synagogues.
Echoing the words of Cologne Rabbi Netanel Teidelbaum, who read opening verses from the book of Genesis, the pope said, "We all of us, Christian and Jew alike, were created in the likeness of God."
Tracing the dark history of anti-Semitism over the centuries in Europe, culminating in the Holocaust, he said that the Shoah "was a turning away from the face of God to the darkness of hatred and destruction."
Calling for reconciliation, he added, "We must display mutual respect and mutual love for one another. Only in that way can we, Christians and Jews, move forward into a future of love and peace."
It was only the second visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to a Jewish place of worship. Pope John Paul II visited a synagogue in Rome in 1986 and undertook an unprecedented trip to Israel in March 2000.
Benedict called for dialogue with non-Christians, reiterating remarks he made on arrival at the airport that his meetings with Jewish and Muslim leaders during his stay were important for "a joint commitment for a just, fraternal future focused on humanity."
On his first official trip as pope, former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, arrived in Germany on Thursday, describing himself as another pilgrim like the 400,000 young Catholics who have gathered in Cologne for World Youth Day.
Unlike his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, he did not kiss the ground on stepping off his plane. But the crowds were nonetheless elated to see the new pontiff.
Everywhere he went, crowds responded with cheers, waving the flags of many nations. Chants of "Benedetto" and Mexican waves were also part of the enthusiastic welcome as the pope was driven through the streets in a popemobile with armored glass.
Using several languages in succession, Benedict said he had come to Cologne Cathedral as a pilgrim to venerate the relics there of the Magi, the three wise men or kings recorded in the New Testament as adoring the infant Jesus Christ.
Outside the cathedral, he departed from his notes to warmly describe the city as a place of "happy Catholicism" that he hoped would rub off on the World Youth Day visitors.
The four-day trip, culminating in a papal mass tomorrow, is the main feature of the boisterous youth rally for 400,000 Catholics under 30 that began on Tuesday. The last pope to visit Germany was John Paul II in 1996, when the reception was more muted.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
ACCESS DISPUTE: The blast struck a house, and set cars and tractors alight, with the fires wrecking several other structures and cutting electricity An explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a one-year-old, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early on Thursday in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of a territorial dispute between the nation’s mining cooperatives turning fatal. The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp as two rival mining groups disputed access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, about 150km northwest of the country’s administrative capital of La Paz, said Colonel Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area. Agudo had initially reported six people killed,
RSS