Photo: Pope Francis listens as Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, speaks during the Pope’s visit to the main synagogue on 17 January in Rome. (CNS/Paul Haring).
While the Catholic Church affirms that salvation comes through Jesus, it also recognises that God is faithful and has not revoked His covenant with the Jewish people, Pope Francis said.
Interrupted repeatedly with applause at Rome’s main synagogue on 17 January, the Pope said the church “recognises the irrevocability of the Old Covenant and the constant and faithful love of God for Israel.”
The statement, which he already had made in his 2013 exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” was repeated in a recent document by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. The document reaffirmed Pope Benedict XVI’s teaching that the church “neither conducts nor supports” any institutional missionary initiative directed toward Jews.
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