Jewish Holocaust Victims Honored By Pope

Pope Benedict XVI decided to weather the rain in order to honor those who had fallen during one of humanities darkest hours.

(Jerusalem Post) Braving pelting rain, the German-born pontiff joined Vienna's chief rabbi, Paul Chaim Eisenberg, in quiet prayer before an austere stone memorial honoring the 65,000 Viennese Jews who perished in Nazi death camps and others burned at the stake in the 1400s after refusing to convert.

Earlier Friday, Benedict told reporters on his flight to Austria that the poignant and highly symbolic stop at Vienna's Judenplatz, or Jewish Square, was intended to show "our sadness, our repentance and our friendship to the Jewish people."

The Vatican has been taking enormous strides to court the Jewish people, with Pope Benedict having previously met with President Peres as well as knighting a Jewish man.

Hopefully Benedict could follow this up by actually visiting Israel, as I am sure many people would welcome his visit to the holy land.

Pope Knights A Jewish Man?

And it seems that this Jewish man was knighted for his ability to help bridge the cultural gaps between Catholics and Jews (not an easy thing as I recall the tension between the two when I was in the holy land).

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency) The head of Pave the Way, a non-sectarian group in New York, became the first Jewish man to be knighted by two popes.

Gary Krupp was promoted to the highest Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great, receiving the Silver Star in a Jan. 15 ceremony in Rome, after Pave the Way presented important Christian documents to the Vatican Library. Krupp "has encouraged, promoted and achieved high levels of cultural cooperation between Catholic and Jewish institutions," said Father David Jaeger, the Vatican's representative to Israel.

Krupp sees religion as a tool to help unite people, instead of dividing them with violence (a common problem in today's world). The Vatican has been aggressively courting Israel over the past few years, and hopefully we will see more of this not only in Rome, but throughout Europe as well.