Vatican City, Jun 7, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Pope Benedict XVI will receive on Thursday a group of 25 Jews representing the world's major Jewish organizations, according to a statement released by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The delegation will be led by Rabbi Israel Singer, president of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC) of New York. The IJCIC is an international organization comprised of all Jewish agencies in the world involved in inter-religious dialogue.
According to the Vatican press release, “The Holy See Commission for Religious Relations with Jews has been meeting for the past 35 years with the IJCIC which, as a partner in dialogue, has shown itself to be very useful in a not-always easy context.”
There have been 18 periodic meetings of the Catholic-Jewish International Liaison Committee. The last meeting took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in July 2004.
The Vatican also announced that on October 27, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Vatican II’s Declaration "Nostra Aetate," –which marked a new approach to the Jews-- a high-level Jewish delegation will be present for the commemoration.