From The Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2000:

In one of the most significant acts of his papacy, Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness yesterday for the many past sins of the Catholic Church, including its treatment of Jews, heretics, women and native peoples. It was the first time in the history of the Church that one of its leaders has sought such a sweeping pardon...

"We forgive and we ask for forgiveness," the pope said in his homily during the unprecedented ceremony, held on the Catholic Church's "Day of Forgiveness" for the 2000 Holy Year. . .

The prayer for forgiveness for sins against Jews, read by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, said in part: "Let us pray that, in recalling the sufferings endured by the people of Israel throughout history, Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by not a few of their number against the people of the Covenant..."

The pope then added in his own words: "We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and, asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant."

 From the Post editorial on the subject, in the same issue:

By saying what he said yesterday in the liturgy of a prayer service in the Vatican, John Paul created a permanent piece of liturgy that joins all other Catholic liturgy, thereby internalizing the request for forgiveness as an integral part of Catholic prayer. The most significant element of yesterday's mass is the fact that contrition for past antisemitism is now an integral part of Catholic liturgy. This ceremony goes a long way toward creating the proper atmosphere for the papal visit...

 From an article by Gustav Niebuhr in The New York Times,
March 12, 2000:

With his special Mass at the Vatican today, Pope John Paul II has set out to do what none of his 262 predecessors felt called to do: apologize for historical transgressions committed by Roman Catholics in the name of the Church. In so doing, John Paul, whose pontificate has been remarkable in many ways..., is acknowledging the grim side of the Church's past, in eras distinguished by forced conversions, support for the Crusades... and creation of the Inquisition.

 Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in an interview with the Associated Press, March 20:

"I don't think the Holy See is interested in giving any political weight to the Pope's visit to Israel. The real importance of the Pope's visit to the region is bringing back to people's minds that this is the place where the whole count began, 2,000 years ago, and to bring his message of peace and tolerance among human beings. . . . It's a monumental turning point in the relationship between the Christian world and the Jewish world."

The Jerusalem Post reported on March 9 that "Sixty percent of adult Jewish Israelis view this month's coming visit by Pope John Paul II as positive, while only 12 percent view it negatively, according to a Gallup Poll conducted for the Interreligious Coordinating Council for Israel (ICCI)."

The poll's findings, said ICCI Director Dr. Ron Kronish, "contradict the conventional wisdom that Israelis are either negative or apathetic about the pope, Christianity and related matters.

One of the most surprisingly positive reactions in the survey was the response to the question, "To what extent would you be interested in participating in dialogue with Christians in order to reach better understanding between people of different religions?" Nearly 50 percent of Israelis expressed interest in this.

 Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press:

Addressing the Jewish people at their Holocaust Memorial in highly personal words, Pope John Paul II said Thursday the Catholic Church is "deeply saddened" by Christian persecution of Jews throughout history, and called for a new relationship between the two faiths based on their common roots. His words were seen as the crowning chapter of efforts throughout his 22-year papacy to reconcile Jews and Christians.

Still, many Jews had hoped for more. The Pope did not assign any blame to the Catholic Church hierarchy, and he did not mention Pope Pius XII, the wartime pontiff accused by many Jews of remaining silent while their brethren were being killed.

In a ceremony in the dark, candle-lit Hall of Remembrance, the pontiff laid a wreath in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi genocide. There were somber words, but also small, touching moments. A Holocaust survivor presented to him began crying, and he gently patted her arm in consolation. When the pontiff prepared to get up from his chair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak helped him up from his chair and handed him his cane.

The Yad Vashem ceremony capped a morning of remarkable, even historic, gestures to Israel and the Jewish people. In a meeting with President Ezer Weizman, the pontiff blessed Israel, an act seen by many Israelis as final church recognition of their state.

In a display of Catholic-Jewish amity, John Paul also met Israel's two Chief Rabbis, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron and Israel Meir Lau, at their office in west Jerusalem. The two black-robed, bearded rabbis handed the white-clad pontiff a Bible - the dedication an allusion to co-existence, taken from the book of the prophet Micah: "For all the people will walk, everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever."

 Greg Myre, Associated Press:

When Edith Tzirer straggled out of a liberated Nazi concentration camp in 1945, her lungs were so ravaged by tuberculosis, she was too weak to walk. Her protector was a handsome young stranger who gave her a piece of bread and a cup of tea on that cold January day outside Krakow, Poland. And then he carried the 14-year-old girl three kilometers (two miles) from the train station where he had found her.

Tzirer wept Thursday as she re-introduced herself to the man she says comforted her more than a half-century ago - Pope John Paul II. "I was a little girl again," said Tzirer, 69, who now lives in Israel. "It was fifty years ago, and everything that happened then came back now." She remembers the event as if it were yesterday, and was shocked in 1978 when she saw a picture of her old savior, Karol Wojtyla, in a French magazine, and learned he had just become the pope.

 From editorial in March 24 Jerusalem Post:

There is no reason for the Jewish people to forget the past, or to gloss over wounds that will remain open until they are fully and honestly addressed. The pope's visit to Israel, however, should mark a transition for the Jewish people as well: one of recognition of the fundamental change in the relationship between Jews and Christians in the modern world.

At Yad Vashem, John Paul called for building "a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator." The pope is right: Jewish grievances, as great and as legitimate as they are, do not absolve the Jewish people of its part in accepting and assisting the Christian process of repentance. According to Jewish belief, both the asker and the asked have roles in the process of repentance, and it is wrong to turn one's back on a sincere act of repentance.

 Haim Shapiro in March 26 Jerusalem Post:

It was a message delivered to an estimated 100,000 young Christians, many of whom had come long distances for the mass at the Mount of Beatitudes, near Moshav Korazim. For them, the mass was the high point of John Paul's visit to the Holy Land.

Among those arriving for the event was Don Carlo Pertusati, a young priest from Asti, in northern Italy, who was among the leaders of some 70 youths who had arrived last Tuesday. Pertusati had gotten up with his group at 3:30 a.m. and arrived at the site at 5 a.m., but he considered himself fortunate to be able to take part in the event. "We belong to those who are blessed," he said.

Many of the young people attending were members of the Neo-catechumenal movement around the world, dedicated to infusing spirituality into the Christian world. Many had worked to save money for the trip and were housed in tents during the visit. It was to these young people that the pope directed his words, calling on the youth to follow the message of the Sermon on the Mount, delivered, according to Christian tradition, near the site of the mass, overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

After the event, when the pope greeted various national groups in their own language, there was a surge of response when he spoke in his native Polish. The pope also delivered a few words of greeting in Hebrew and expressed special thanks, in Hebrew, to the Israel Police for its part in organizing what was - despite the weather, the rigorous security precautions and the vast number of people present - a virtually trouble-free event.

 Haim Shaprio in March 27 Jerusalem Post:

In an intensely moving moment, Pope John Paul II yesterday made his way slowly and haltingly to the Western Wall, bowed his head and stood silently, placed a prayer in the Wall, turned to leave and then turned back to the Wall for another moment of silence. He inserted a prayer prepared in advance, which appeared to sum up in a few lines his appreciation of Judaism, his feelings about the persecution of Jews and his apirations for a new dialogue with the Jewish people.

 Jacob Lefkovits Dallal in March 31 Jerusalem Post:

Very little changes in Jerusalem, and while its inhabitants go about their daily lives, the place itself has an eternal presence. So it was on Sunday morning at the Western Wall: The sun flooded the area, as it almost always does, a handful of worshippers were praying, as they have for centuries, and the pervasive stillness of the place was to be felt, as it invariably is.

"Silence in which to remember," the pope said at Yad Vashem. "Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories that come flooding back."

The pope leaves Jerusalem, and the Western Wall is left in the same silence with which it embraces those who visit it.

 Rev. Petra Heldt, Executive Secretary, Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel, in a statement issued March 28, 2000 (excerpts):

"The success of the historic papal visit to the Holy Land is nothing short of a miracle. The secret may lie in the fact that the Pope emphasized at every opportunity that the purpose of his visit is a spiritual and a religious one and not a political one. It thus was hardly noticed that the emphasis was laid on biblical ecumenism. For this purpose, the Pope employed extensively Israel's three-decades-old ecumenical work for reconciliation between Churches and between Christians and Jews. It fitted so well into the papal program, and could be so firmly relied upon, that ecumenism can be regarded as an integral part of the visit's success....

For the first time in history, the Pope of Rome came to pay a visit to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem at his See. This has reconciled questions as to the nature of the relations between the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The visit signaled that the Pope respects the historical authority of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch as the representative of the Christians in the Holy Land....

The Pope has set new dimensions for the ecumenical work that bridges old gaps. Renewed efforts are now called for to strengthen these ties in order to live up to the new sensitivity for the biblical ecumenism that includes all Churches and the Jewish people...."

 Pope John Paul II, in an appearance at St. Peter's Square in Rome on March 29, 2000:

"I am unable to express the joy and gratitude I feel in my heart for this gift from God for which I had hoped for so long! I thank God for this unforgettable experience."

 A. James Rudin, Religion News Service, March 30:

"The papal visit compelled many Israelis to recognize for the first time the extraordinary positive advances in Catholic-Jewish relations. Until now, those gains were usually articulated at academic conferences, or frequently appeared to be the exclusive preserve of interreligious professionals. Not anymore. The pope dramatically gave personal meaning to those achievements, and his visit was a series of lasting electronic icons that will influence future Christian-Jewish encounters.

"In one of his last public acts in Israel, the pope placed a signed prayer for forgiveness for Catholic antisemitic acts in one of the crevices of the Western Wall, Judaism's most sacred holy place. No one, not even the enemies of Israel, can ever misinterpret or forget that papal act of repentance."

 Lee Hockstader, The Washington Post, March 28:

"In six breathtaking days in the Holy Land, Pope John Paul II not only stayed on message - a plea for reconciliation, coexistence and peace in a turbulent region. He also effected a tectonic shift in interfaith relations between Catholics and Jews, won the hearts and minds of all but a few Israelis and gave a boost to Palestinians and the demoralized local Christian community."

 Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv, March 27:

"The image of the pope of a billion Catholics deep in prayer at the Western Wall needs no words, other than the ones the pontiff placed there. It was the crowning point of his papacy's two decades of working for Catholic-Jewish reconciliation, and it was not just the Jews he asked for forgiveness, but their God - and his."

The Pope is greeted by Police Chief Yehuda Wilk, who was responsible for security throughout the papal visit. At left: Prime Minister Barak; at right: President Weizman

"In the name of the people of Israel, I welcome you with the traditional greeting: Baruch Haba! (Blessed be your coming).

"... Two thousand years ago, the people of Israel was exiled from its country and its homeland, and dispersed among the nations. During the years of exile, we suffered persecution and antisemitism, and one-third of our people were slaughtered, incinerated, in the terrible Holocaust. Today we are no longer Jews in exile, wandering the globe from land to land, from diaspora to diaspora. We - my brothers and contemporaries - were born into the era when the Jews returned to their land and rebuilt it.

"We appreciate Your Holiness' contribution to condemning antisemitism by labeling it as a crime against God and humanity, and by the request for forgiveness for deeds carried out in the past by representatives of the Church against the Jewish people. As you have noted, we must act together to fight the plague of racism and antisemitism all over the world.

"We are mindful of the new emphasis in Catholic religious teaching that calls for acknowledging the Jewish roots of Christianity and recognizing the Jewish people as it defines itself.

"Therefore, it is important for the men and women in the Church to become familiar, too, with the modern Israeli reality, the State of Israel, as the spiritual center of the Jewish people, where Jews, Muslims and Christians, together with people of other faiths, live together in peace and harmony. From its inception, the State of Israel has guaranteed freedom of religion and freedom of access to holy sites to all peoples, and you will certainly see the evidence of this, Your Holiness, throughout your visit in Israel....

"You are arriving this evening in Jerusalem, the City of Peace, the capital of the State of Israel, the heart of the Jewish world - which is also a holy site for Christianity and Islam. [Quotation from Book of Isaiah] ... Jerusalem has been the heart of the Jewish people throughout the generations; it is what gives us our spiritual strength. Jerusalem is the city of eternity, a city that has been reunified. It is the city of the Judges of Israel, the Kings of Israel and the Prophets of Israel: It is the capital and the source of pride of the State of Israel. . . .

"We welcome you here, Your Holiness, John Paul II."

"Yesterday, from the heights of Mount Nebo, I looked across the Jordan Valley to this blessed land. Today, it is with profound emotion that I set foot in the Land where God chose to "pitch his tent" (Jn. 1:14; cf. Ex. 40:34-35; IKgs. 8:10-13), and made it possible for man to encounter him more directly.

"In this year of the two thousandth anniversary of the Birth of Jesus Christ, it has been my strong personal desire to come here and to pray in the most important places which, from ancient times, have seen God's interventions, the wonders he has done. [Quotation from Book of Psalms, 77:15]

"Mr. President, I thank you for your warm welcome, and in your person I greet all the people of the State of Israel. My visit is both a personal pilgrimage and the spiritual journey of the Bishop of Rome to the origins of our faith in 'the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob'... Along every step of the way I am moved by a vivid sense of God who has gone before us and leads us on, who wants us to honor him in spirit and in truth, to acknowledge the differences between us, but also to recognize in every human being the image and likeness of the One Creator of heaven and earth....

"With new-found openness towards one another, Christians and Jews together must make courageous efforts to remove all forms of prejudice. We must strive always and everywhere to present the true face of the Jews and of Judaism, as likewise of Christians and of Christianity - and this at every level of attitude, teaching and communication....

"I pray that my visit will serve to encourage an increase of interreligious dialogue that will lead Jews, Christians and Muslims to seek in their respective beliefs, and in the universal brotherhood that unites all the members of the human family, the motivation and the perseverance to work for the peace and justice which the peoples of the Holy Land do not yet have, and for which they yearn so deeply. [Ps. 85:8] . . . May peace be God's gift to the Land he chose as his own!

"Shalom!"

At left: Chief Rabbi Lau; at right: Chief Rabbi Bakshi-Doron. Israel's envoy to the Holy See, Aharon Lopez, is behind the Pope.

From the Official Greeting of Chief Rabbis Israel Meir Lau and Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, Jerusalem, March 20:

"The people of Israel who dwell in Zion and the Chief Rabbis of Israel welcome Pope John Paul II with the traditional greeting: Blessed be your coming to Israel!

"From the holy city of Jerusalem of which the Prophet Zechariah said, 'Sing and rejoice, o daughter of Zion; and many nations shall join themselves to the Lord that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of you' (Zech. 2:14-15) we welcome one who saw fit to express remorse in the name of the Catholic Church for the terrible deeds committed against the Jewish people in the course of the past two thousand years...

"We remember, and mention to his credit, the decisive assistance he gave in the matter of moving the Carmelite Convent out of the area of the Auschwitz concentration camp...

"We appreciate, as well, his recognition of our right to return to and live in the Holy Land in peace and brotherhood within safe borders recognized by the nations of the world and especially by our neighbors...

"From Jerusalem, capital of the State of Israel, and from Zion, the holy city, we pray that we may be granted a good and long life, a life of peace and security, health and peace of mind - a life of human brotherhood. May it be His will that the words of the prophet be fulfilled:

" 'Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.' (Isaiah 2:4). . ."

"It is with deep respect that I visit you here today and thank you for receiving me at Hechal Shlomo. Truly this is a uniquely significant meeting which - I hope and pray - will lead to increasing contacts between Christians and Jews, aimed at achieving an ever deeper understanding of the historical and theological relationship between our respective religious heritages.

"Personally, I have always wanted to be counted among those who work, on both sides, to overcome old prejudices and to secure ever wider and fuller recognition of the spiritual patrimony shared by Jews and Christians. I repeat what I said on the occasion of my visit to the Jewish Community in Rome, that we Christians recognize that the Jewish religious heritage is intrinsic to our faith: "You are our elder brothers." We hope that the Jewish people will acknowledge that the Church utterly condemns antisemitism and every form of racism as being altogether opposed to the principles of Christianity. We must work together to build a future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews.

"There is much that we have in common. There is so much that we can do together for peace, for justice, for a more human and fraternal world. May the Lord of heaven and earth lead us to a new and fruitful era of mutual respect and cooperation, for the benefit of all! Thank you."

"Silence in which to remember..."

".... In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah. My own personal memories are of all that happened when the Nazis occupied Poland during the War. I remember my Jewish friends and neighbors, some of whom perished, while others survived.

"I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to millions of Jewish people who, stripped of everything, especially of their human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust. More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain.... No one can forget or ignore what happened. No one can diminish its scale. We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely, to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism. How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God. Only a Godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people....

"As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of antisemitism directed against Jews by Christians at any time and in any place. The Church rejects racism in any form as a denial of the image of the Creator inherent in every human being (cf. Gen. 1:26).

"In this place of solemn remembrance, I fervently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people suffered in the twentieth century will lead to a new relationship between Christians and Jews. Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord, and look to Abraham as our common father in faith.

"The world must heed the warning that comes to us from the victims of the Holocaust and from the testimony of the survivors. Here at Yad Vashem the memory lives on, and burns itself onto our souls. It makes us cry out: "I hear the whisperings of many - terror on every side! - but I trust in you, o Lord; I say, You are my God." (Ps. 31:13-15)

 Prime Minister Ehud Barak: [Opening words in Hebrew]

"In the name of the Jewish people, in the name of the State of Israel and all of its citizens - Christians, Muslims, Druze and Jews - I welcome you, in friendship, in brotherhood and in peace. Here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the eternal city of faith.

"Your Holiness, we meet today in this sanctuary of memory, for the Jewish people and for all humanity, Yad Vashem - literally, 'a place and a name' - for the six million of our brothers and sisters, for one and a half million children, victims of the barbarian evil of Nazism....

"From the depths of that 'long night of the Shoah,' as you have called it, we saw flickers of light, shining like beacons against the utter darkness around them. These were the Righteous Gentiles, mostly children of your faith, who secretly risked their lives to save the lives of others. Their names are inscribed on the walls around us here at Yad Vashem; they are forever inscribed on the tablets of our hearts.

"You, Your Holiness, were a young witness to the tragedy, and, as you wrote to your Jewish childhood friend, you felt, in some sense, as if you yourself had experienced the fate of Polish Jewry....

"You have done more than anyone else to bring about the historic change in the attitude of the Church towards the Jewish people initiated by the good Pope John XXIII, and to dress the gaping wounds that festered over many centuries. And I think I can say, Your Holiness, that your coming here today, to the Tent of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, is a climax of the historic journey of healing....

"Shortly before setting out on your pilgrimage here, you raised the flag of fraternity to full mast, setting into Church liturgy a request for forgiveness for wrongs committed by members of your faith against others, especially against the Jewish people. We appreciate this noble act most profoundly. Naturally, it is impossible to overcome all the pain of the past overnight. Your Holiness has frequently commented on problems regarding past relations between Christianity and the Jews. It is our wish to continue productive dialogue on this issue, and to work together to eliminate the scourge of racism and antisemitism....

"The establishment of the State of Israel against all odds, and the ingathering of the exiles, not only have restored to the Jewish people its honor and mastery over its fate; they are the definitive, permanent answer to Auschwitz. We have returned home, and from that moment on, no Jew will ever again remain helpless or be stripped of the last shred of human dignity. Here, in the cradle of our civilization, we have rebuilt our home, so that it may thrive in peace and security....

"Your Holiness, we have noted with appreciation your words about the unique bond of the Jewish people to Jerusalem - that, and I quote you, 'Jews love Jerusalem with a passion ... from the days of David, who chose it as a capital, and from the days of Solomon, who built the Temple there. Therefore, they turn to it in their prayers every day and point to it as a symbol of their nation.'

"I would like to reiterate our absolute commitment to protect all rights and properties of the Catholic Church, as well as those of the other Christian and Muslim institutions; to continue to ensure full freedom of worship to the members of all faiths equally; and to keep united Jerusalem open and free, as never before, to all who love her. I know that you pray, as we do, for the unity and peace of Jerusalem.

[Scriptural passage in Hebrew]

" 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem... Peace within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren's and companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee!'

"Your Holiness, you have come on a mission of brotherhood, of remembrance and of peace. And we say to you: Baruch ata beYisrael! Blessed are you in Israel!"

"I am honored and happy to welcome Your Holiness to the Israeli President's Residence in Jerusalem....

"There is a question whether history makes a leader, or a leader creates history. You, Your Holiness, without a doubt are clearly leaving your mark and influence on history. During the past several years, we have been witnessing a process of globalization. People from different countries, from different cultures and with different religions are being drawn to one another. This is due to modern technology. But you, Your Holiness, through your character, your conduct and your personal influence, unite the hearts of humanity.

"We are in Jerusalem, the Holy City, the eternal capital of Israel - a very important religious center for Judaism, Christianity and Islam - and the city of peace. Your visit to Jerusalem can contribute to peace, to friendship between Jews, Muslims, Christians, and between Israel and the Arab world.

"For thirty years, I personally fought in Israeli wars, and over the past twenty years I have been doing everything within my ability in the battle for peace.... A comprehensive peace between Israel and her neighbors is the dream of every Israeli - and of all the people of the Middle East....

"My wife and I wish Your Holiness good health and continued success in this most special visit to Israel."

 His Holiness Pope John Paul II:

"I am most grateful, Mr. President, for the welcome you have given me to Israel. To this meeting we both bring long histories. You represent Jewish memory, reaching beyond the recent history of this Land to your people's unique journey through the centuries and millennia. I come as one whose Christian memory reaches back through the two thousand years since the birth of Jesus in this very Land.

History, as the ancients held, is the Magistra vitae, a teacher of how to live. This is why we must be determined to heal the wounds of the past, so that they may never be opened again. We must work for a new era of reconciliation and peace between Jews and Christians. My visit is a pledge that the Catholic Church will do everything possible to ensure that this is not just a dream but a reality.

"We know that real peace in the Middle East will come only as a result of mutual understanding and respect between all the peoples of this region - Jews, Christians and Muslims. In this perspective, my pilgrimage is a journey of hope: the hope that the twenty-first century will lead to a new solidarity among the peoples of the world, in the conviction that development, justice and peace will not be attained unless they are attained for all.

"Building a brighter future for the human family is a task which concerns us all. That is why I am pleased to greet you, Government Ministers, Members of the Knesset and Diplomatic Representatives of many countries, who must make and implement decisions which affect the lives of people. It is my fervent hope that a genuine desire for peace will inspire your every decision. With that as my prayer, I invoke abundant divine blessings upon you, Mr. President, upon your country and upon all of you who have honored me with your presence. Thank you."

".... In the Christian view, it is not for religious leaders to propose technical formulas for the solution of social, economic and political problems. Theirs is, above all, the task of teaching the truths of faith and right conduct, the task of helping people - including those with responsibility in public life - to be aware of their duties and to fulfill them. As religious leaders, we help people to live integrated lives, to harmonize the vertical dimension of their relationship with God with the horizontal dimension of service to their neighbor....

"Each of our religions knows, in some form or another, the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Precious as this rule is as a guide, true love of neighbor goes much further. It is based on the conviction that when we love our neighbor we are showing love for God, and when we hurt our neighbor we offend God. This means that religion is the enemy of exclusion and discrimination, of hatred and rivalry, of violence and conflict. Religion is not, and must not become, an excuse for violence, particularly when religious identity coincides with cultural and ethnic identity. Religion and peace go together! Religious belief and practice cannot be separated from the defense of the image of God in every human being.

"Drawing upon the riches of our respective religious traditions, we must spread awareness that today's problems will not be solved if we remain ignorant of one another and isolated from one another. We are all aware of past misunderstandings and conflicts, and these still weigh heavily upon relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims. We must do all we can to turn awareness of past offenses and sins into a firm resolve to build a new future in which there will be nothing but respectful and fruitful cooperation between us...."

" 'Consider your calling, brothers and sisters' (I Cor. 1:26).

"Today these words of Saint Paul are addressed to all of us who have come here to the Mount of the Beatitudes. We sit on this hill like the first disciples, and we listen to Jesus. In the stillness, we hear his gentle and urgent voice, as gentle as this land itself and as urgent as a call to choose between life and death.... It is wonderful that you are here!...

"The first to hear the Beatitudes of Jesus bore in their hearts the memory of another mountain - Mount Sinai. Just a month ago, I had the grace of going there, where God spoke to Moses and gave the Law, 'written with the finger of God' (Ex. 31:18) on the tablets of stone. These two mountains - Sinai and the Mount of the Beatitudes - offer us the road-map of our Christian life and a summary of our responsibilities to God and neighbor. The Law and the Beatitudes together mark the path of the following of Christ and the royal road to spiritual maturity and freedom.

"The Ten Commandments of Sinai may seem negative: 'You shall have no false gods before me; ... Do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness...' (Ex. 20:3, 13-16) But in fact they are supremely positive! Moving beyond the evil they name, they point the way to the law of love which is the first and greatest of the commandments: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind... You shall love your neighbor as yourself' (Mt. 22:37, 39). Jesus himself says that he came not to abolish but to fulfill the Law (cf. Mt. 5:17). His message is new, but it does not destroy what went before; it leads what went before to its fullest potential. Jesus teaches that the way of love brings the Law to fulfillment (cf. Gal. 5:14). And he taught this enormously important truth on this hill, here in Galilee....

"Not far from this very place, Jesus called his first disciples, as he calls you now. His call has always demanded a choice between two voices competing for your hearts even now on this hill, the choice between good and evil, between life and death. Which voice will the young people of the twenty-first century choose to follow? To put your faith in Jesus means choosing to believe what he says, no matter how strange it may seem, and choosing to reject the claims of evil, no matter how sensible or attractive they may seem....

"The disciples spent time with the Lord. They came to know and love him deeply. They discovered the meaning of what the Apostle Peter once said to Jesus: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life' (Jn. 6:68). They discovered that the words of eternal life are the words of Sinai and the words of the Beatitudes. And this is the message which they spread everywhere.... For two thousand years, Christ's followers have carried out this mission. Now, at the dawn of the Third Millennium, it is your turn. It is your turn to go out into the world to preach the message of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.... (They) speak of truth and goodness, of grace and freedom: of all that is necessary to enter into Christ's Kingdom. Now it is your turn to be courageous apostles of that Kingdom!...

"O Lord Jesus, you have made these young people your friends. Keep them for ever close to you! Amen."

".... I thank Your Beatitude Patriarch Diodoros for your fraternal hospitality and for the kind words you have addressed to us. I greet Your Beatitude Patriarch Torkom and all the Archbishops and Bishops of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities present. It is a source of great joy to know that the Heads of Christian communities in the Holy City of Jerusalem meet frequently to deal with matters of common interest to the faithful. The fraternal spirit which prevails among you is a sign and a gift to the Christians of the Holy Land as they face the challenges before them.

"... (This evening's meeting) confirms that we have set out on the path to knowing one another better, with the desire to overcome the mistrust and rivalry inherited from the past. Here in Jerusalem, in the City where our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead, his words ring out with special resonance - particularly the words he spoke on the night before he died: 'that they may all be one; ... so that the world may believe that you have sent me' (Jn. 17:21). It is in response to that prayer of the Lord that we are together here, all followers of the one Lord despite our sad divisions, and all conscious that his will obliges us, and the Churches and Ecclesial Communities we represent, to walk the path of reconciliation and peace....

"In the Holy Land, where Christians live side by side with the followers of Judaism and Islam, where there are almost daily tensions and conflicts, it is essential to overcome the scandalous impression given by our disagreements and arguments. In this City it should be eminently possible for Christians, Jews and Muslims to live together in brotherhood and freedom, in dignity, justice and peace...."

Written Prayer of the Holy Father, placed in a crevice at the Western Wall:

 Minister of Diaspora Affairs Rabbi Michael Melchior:

".... Thrice daily, for thousands of years, Jews have prayed toward this place ... from every corner of the globe. We have never stopped praying. We have never stopped yearning: 'May our eyes behold God's merciful return to Zion!' In the tortuous dungeons of the Inquisition; while awaiting the hangman's noose; when cramped in cattle cars bound for Auschwitz, Treblinka or Maidanek; and in the heat of battle defending our State - Jews have longed for and prayed toward this holy place....

"We welcome your coming here as the realization of a commitment of the Catholic Church to end the era of hatred, humiliation and persecution of the Jewish people. In the name of the Government of Israel and the Jewish people, we stand here to call out in the loudest and clearest of voices: No longer!

"No longer may we pervert the sublime values of religion to justify war. No longer may we call God's name as we strike down those created in His image. Today begins a new era, in which we all lift our eyes to the heavens and commit ourselves to searching every ancient path and paving bold new highways that will bring peace to all religions and to all believers - Jews, Christians and Muslims alike....

"Let us do our utmost to realize the Prophet Isaiah's song of peace: 'And I shall bring them to my holy mountain, and cause them to rejoice in my house of prayer. Their offerings and sacrifices will be welcome on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.' (Isaiah 56:7) ...."

"The path along which we should proceed with the Jewish religious community is one of fraternal dialogue and fruitful collaboration." (March 1979)

"The Jewish people is the people of God of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God." (November 1980)

"With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way it could be said you are our elder brothers." (April 1986)

"No valid theological justification could ever be found for acts of discrimination or persecution against Jews. In fact, such acts must be held to be sinful." (November 1986)

"We must also reflect on the catastrophic events of the Shoah, that ruthless and inhumane attempt to annihilate the Jewish people in Europe, an attempt that resulted in millions of victims - including women and children, the elderly and the sick - slaughtered only because they were Jews." (September 1987)

"After the tragic annihilation of the Shoah, the Jews began a new period in their history. They have a right to a homeland, as does any civil nation under international law. For the Jewish people who live in the State of Israel and who preserve in that land such precious testimonies to their history and their faith, we must ask for the desired security and the due tranquillity that are the prerogative of every nation and condition of life and of progress for every society." (September 1987)

"For Christians, the heavy burden of guilt for the murder of the Jewish people must be an enduring call to repentance; thereby we can overcome every form of antisemitism and establish a new relationship with our kindred nation of the Old Covenant." (November 1990)

"That antisemitism has found a place in Christian thought and practice calls for an act of teshuva (repentance) and of reconciliation on our part." (December 1990)

"Sustained by its faith in the Lord, even in its millennary dispersion, the Jewish people has preserved its identity, its rite, its tradition - and indeed has made an essential contribution to the spiritual and cultural life of the world." (August 1991)

"In the face of the danger of a resurgence and spread of antisemitic feelings, attitudes and initiatives, of which certain disquieting signs are to be seen today - and the most frightful results of which we have all experienced in the past - we must teach consciences to consider antisemitism and all forms of racism as sins against God and humanity." (August 1991)

"A new age is dawning in relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel, by a persevering dialogue and by active collaboration which will help intensify understanding between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people of Israel and the whole world." (September 1994)

"God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the nations: We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those in the course of history who have caused these children of yours to suffer, and, asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant." (March 2000)