Rome — Hundreds of armed police and security personnel were deployed in Rome Sunday as Pope Francis prepared to visit the city’s main synagogue, where he will meet members of the Italian capital’s Jewish community.
Rome’s Great Synagogue is located just across the River Tiber from the Vatican, in an area still known as the Ghetto where under the orders of some of Francis’s predecessors, Jews were confined for more than three centuries until their emancipation at the end of the 19th Century.
After the deadly attacks in Paris in November, claimed by the Islamic State group, security for the pope’s visit is particularly tight, with basements in the area around the synagogue searched, dustbins sealed and parking banned.
Let’s unite against war and violence, Pope Francis urges at Roman synagogue
Rome, Italy, Jan 17, 2016 / 10:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking Sunday at the major synagogue of Rome, Pope Francis called on Jews and Christians to counter the conflict, war, violence and injustice that open deep wounds in humanity.
These call us “to strengthen our commitment for peace and justice,” he said Jan. 17. “The violence of man toward man is in contradiction with every religion worthy of this name, and in particular with the great monotheistic religions.”
Pope Francis began his speech thanking those who had greeted him, and stating: “During my first visit to this synagogue as Bishop of Rome, I wish to express to you, and to the whole Jewish community, the fraternal greetings of peace of this Church and of the entire Catholic Church.”
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