VIENNA — Pope Benedict XVI stood silently Friday before a large stone monument to Austrian Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust, offering a gesture of what he described as "sadness" and "repentance."
The visit was a significant start to a three-day pilgrimage to Austria to lend succor to a Roman Catholic Church still troubled by sexual abuse scandals, plummeting membership and sapped influence.
"An Austria without a vibrant Christian faith would no longer be Austria," the pope said at an evening gathering of diplomats and international officials at Vienna's majestic Hofburg palace.
The visit to Austria allows the pope to emphasize some of his favorite themes, including what he sees as Europe's essential Christian identity, particularly as it is undermined by secularism and growing Muslim populations. One demographer last week predicted that at current dropout and birth rates, Catholics may represent only 50% of Austria's population by 2051 (down from 74% in 2001), while Muslims could come to constitute 30% of the population.
"Europe cannot and must not deny her Christian roots," Benedict said. "Christianity has profoundly shaped this continent."
But as he did last year in Poland and his native Germany, the pope, who grew up during World War II and served briefly in Hitler's army, has had to confront the legacy of the Holocaust and the often problematic relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism.
Shortly after arriving, Benedict stopped at the memorial in Judenplatz, or Jews' Square. The appearance was brief and drenched in rain. The pontiff meditated alongside Austria's chief rabbi, Chaim Eisenberg, then listened to him pray. Benedict bowed twice before shaking hands with representatives of the Jewish community.
Speaking earlier to reporters accompanying him on the flight from Rome, Benedict said he wanted to show "our sadness, our repentance" for the Holocaust and "our friendship with our Jewish brothers." The pope's use of the word "repentance" was especially important because it recognizes guilt and responsibility, which Jewish leaders have been seeking.
"There is no dearth of acknowledgment of what happened, but rarely do we get a clearly pronounced acknowledgment of guilt of the clergy," Robert Liska, a prominent member of the Viennese Jewish community, said before the pope's visit. "It is a question of how much he talks about responsibility and real individual guilt of church leaders. Are church leaders prepared to make amends or just try to smooth over the edges?"
