Pope pleads for interreligious effort for Middle East peace

Published: 2004-05-24

ROME (CNS) -- As Rome's Jewish community celebrated the 100th anniversary of its monumental synagogue, Pope John Paul II pleaded for new interreligious efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. "The God of justice and peace, of mercy and reconciliation calls us to collaborate without hesitation in our modern world, which is lacerated by confrontations and hostility," the pope wrote in a message to the community. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, papal vicar for Rome, read the pope's message at the May 23 anniversary celebration, which the city's Jewish community marked by honoring those who survived past injustices and by renewing its commitment to dialogue with Christians and Muslims. The synagogue, built between 1901 and 1904, replaced the five small synagogues of Rome's Jewish ghetto, where the city's Jews were forced by papal order to live beginning in 1556.

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