VATICAN CITY (CNS) Pope Benedict XVI has told the Jewish community of Rome that he plans to visit its synagogue in the near future, the Vatican has confirmed. In a good will telegram to Chief Rabbi Riccardo di Segni marking the upcoming Jewish holidays, the pope said he would visit "with joy" the Rome synagogue sometime in October, after the end of the High Holy Days.
The telegram was made public by the Jewish Community of Rome and confirmed by Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican press office. Father Benedettini said that while no date had been set, the visit would likely take place sometime in the fall.
In the telegram, the pope offered his "heartfelt best wishes" for the holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
"I renew my cordial friendship while I wait to make, with joy, the visit to your community and synagogue at the end of your holidays," the pope said in the telegram. Such a visit, he said, "is animated by a real desire to show you that I and the whole Catholic Church are close to you."
Pope Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, made history when he became the first pope to visit the Roman synagogue in 1986.
Pope Benedict has made Catholic-Jewish relations a priority and has visited synagogues in New York and Cologne, Germany; he also visited Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. During his trip to the Holy Land in May, he met with Holocaust survivors at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
In his message, the pope said he hoped the Jewish holidays would prove to be "an occasion for a common and blessed gladness" and promised blessings and "constant encouragement" in the promotion of justice and peace.
Rabbi di Segni thanked the pope for "such a significant and important message" and said that plans were under way to organize the papal visit.