Friday, August 19, 2005

Report

German-born Pope Benedict XVI on Friday became the second pope to visit a synagogue, entering to the haunting tones of a shofar, praying before a Holocaust memorial and winning praise for warning of rising anti-Semitism.

"Second pope?" No, no, no, you media morons.

Norman Ravitch: "That is precisely the problem. The first few "popes" (even if they were then quite simple men) went regularly to synagogues since they were Jews. The fact that from perhaps the end of the first century AD til the end of the 20th Century no popes visited synagogues simply highlights with great clarity the anti-Jewish nature of Christianity as it developed and existed from the end of the first century to the end of the 20th."

Also, MSM, maybe you ought to point out that for hundreds of years, no Jewish man would have been permitted to shake the Pope's hand: he'd have been required to kiss the pope's foot instead. That would be great for context.