Pope confers papal knighthood on rabbi for work with Catholics, Jews

Published: 2007-09-10

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Rabbi Leon Klenicki, former interfaith affairs director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York, was invested into the order of St. Gregory the Great during an Aug. 26 ceremony in New York at which Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley presided. The knighthood was granted by Pope Benedict XVI for Rabbi Klenicki's work with Catholics and Jews. The ceremony, at the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, was attended by Catholic and Jewish interfaith officials, including Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, and Father James Massa, executive director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. A renowned scholar and theologian, Rabbi Klenicki joins a select group of Jews, and only a handful of rabbis to receive the papal knighthood. He is the author and co-author of hundreds of books and papers dealing with the theological and practical aspects of improving relations between Catholics and Jews.

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