BBC ON THIS DAY | 26 | 2000: Pope prays for Holocaust forgiveness

BBC ON THIS DAY | 26 | 2000: Pope prays for Holocaust forgiveness



26 March





2000: Pope prays for Holocaust forgiveness
Pope John Paul II has prayed for forgiveness of the sins of those involved in the Holocaust.
However, he avoided any admission of Church "guilt" over alleged complicity.

Since arriving in Israel as part of his Millennium Pilgrimage, the Pope has been under growing pressure to apologise for the Vatican's failure to speak out during the Holocaust.

The 79-year-old placed a prayer into the crevices of the Western (or Wailing) Wall, asking for God's forgiveness for "the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer".

"I assure the Jewish people the Catholic Church ... is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place," the Pope said.

The pontiff added that there were "no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy" of the Holocaust.

A spokesman for the pontiff said he had paused for a moment of private prayer - "something personal" - and laid a hand on the wall.

By placing his prayer, which was typewritten and signed by the Pope, in the wall he echoed the custom of Jewish worshippers over generations.

The prayer was taken from the wall by a government spokesman and placed in the archives of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial for the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.


It was beyond history, beyond memory


Rabbi Michael Melchior




Israeli cabinet minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, who hosted the Pope's visit, said he was "very moved" by the Pope's gesture.

The Pope is visiting the most sacred sites in Jerusalem at the climax of his week-long Millennium Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He is the first pontiff to go there in 36 years.

John Paul II had repeatedly said he had dreamt of visiting the region since he was elected pontiff in 1978.

The visit to the holiest site of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, saw around 7,000 Israeli security forces deployed in the ancient city.

City police arrested several extreme right-wing Jewish residents amid fears of disturbances.

Earlier, the pontiff visited the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest Islamic shrine. He was greeted by the top Islamic cleric in Jerusalem and other Palestinian clerics and dignitaries.

Outside the mosque, more than a dozen Muslim protesters screamed at PLO officials after they met the pontiff.