In just another indication of the vast improvement of relations between the Catholic church and the Jewish community, Pope Francis recently reached out to an American Jewish leader, the son of two Holocaust survivors, in a recent e-mail exchange.
Acocrding to The Washington Post, the pope contacted Menachem Rosensaft, an American professor specializing in the law of genocide and war crimes trials at Columbia and Cornell, after Rosensaft sent a sermon he delivered in September on believing in God after the Holocaust, along with a personal note, to the Vatican.
“When you, with humility, are telling us where God was in that moment, I felt within me that you had transcended all possible explanations,” Francis wrote back in his email to Rosensaft. “Thank you from my heart. And, please, do not forget to pray for me. May the Lord bless you.”
Rosensaft said Francis’s outreach to him is seen as part of an ongoing evolution of understanding between the two religious traditions.
“I think having the pope raise the issue to this level means that we are going to hopefully have an integration of Holocaust memory not just into the Jewish theological framework but also into the Catholic teachings. Perhaps then we can move forward together,” he told The Post.
On Friday, the Vatican announced plans for Francis to visit Israel, perhaps as early as 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(YWN News Desk)
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Since HKB”H operates by the principle of Middoh Kneged Midddoh, we must start teaching our children and Bochurom, that all of mankind, adults and children, Yiddishe and Non-Yiddishe, are precious in the eyes of the Creator, Hashem Yisborach.
Halevai, that our children should see, that we worry about the well-being of every person and we make an effort, not to exclude any person, from our Teffilohs. Especially when we Daven for Refuah Shleimo, we must Daven for Yidden and Non-Yidden who are R”L not well.
That will strengthen our empathy and concern for all Human Beings, regardless of what kind of mother they were born to. That will be M’oirer Rachmei Shomayim.
HKB”H will, Never-Again, instigate any Hatred or Pogroms or Holocausts against us.