When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Israel today for his first visit to the Holy Land, he will bear a message of religious cooperation aimed in part at strengthening often shaky Catholic-Jewish relations.
Benedict's Middle East pilgrimage began in Jordan and will also take him to the West Bank, where he'll visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, May 14, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 53 words Type of Material: Correction
Pope Benedict XVI: The Beliefs column in Monday's Section A about the pope's visit to Israel and the West Bank suggested that the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the Western Wall are on the West Bank. Yad Vashem is in west Jerusalem; the Western Wall is in the contested Old City of Jerusalem.
He will meet with Israel's two chief rabbis, its president and prime minister. And he'll huddle with organizations involved in inter-religious dialogue.
Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders in the U.S., and particularly those in Los Angeles, widely agree that Benedict's Middle East trip could go a long way toward soothing hard feelings caused by recent controversies, including the pontiff's decision earlier this year to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.
"It will validate the relationship that existed between Pope John Paul II and Israel . . . and that is very important," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
John Paul II, Benedict's predecessor, won praise for his many overtures toward Jews, including a 2000 visit to Israel. He was the first pope to pay an official visit to a synagogue, the first to formally recognize Israel and the first to pray at the Auschwitz concentration camp in his native Poland.
Benedict, who was elected in 2005, has had a rockier time.
He angered Jews in 2007 when he relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, which includes a passage that calls for the conversion of Jews.
In January, he lifted the excommunication of four ultra-conservative bishops, one of whom, British-born Richard Williamson, denied that Jews died in Nazi gas chambers.
The decision triggered a worldwide outcry among Jewish leaders, who warned that it would set back decades of efforts to mend strained relations between the two faiths.
The Vatican subsequently demanded Williamson retract his public statements about the Holocaust but has not been fully satisfied with his responses, Catholic officials said.
One prominent Jewish leader called the Williamson episode "a major wart and embarrassment" for Benedict but added that it was overshadowed by the pope's recognition of Israel and his visit to the Jewish state. He is only the third pope to do so.
