The Pope Visits The Shul

Pope Benedict traveled to Rome's synagogue in a historic visit where he asked for forgiveness for Christians and their antisemitism. The Popes visit was controversial based on the recent events of moving his predecessor Pius Xll closer to sainthood. Riccardo Pacifici, president of Rome’s Jewish community took a very hard line with the Pope and insisted that if the Vatican would open it's wartime archives historians could judge for themselves just how much Pop Pius really knew about the Nazis. The Vatican claimed it would do so, once the archives were cataloged but defended Pope Pius. the Vatican's stance is that Pope Pius  was afraid of backlash should he have publicly denounced the Nazis, instead opting to work behind the scenes to help the Jews.