THE POPE'S VISIT TO THE TEMPIO MAGGIORE....

Jeorge Mejía

The remote origin of this historic event dates back to the year before, when the Holy Father went on a pastoral visit to the Roman parish of San Carlo ai Cantinari, on February 8, 1981. Now, this parish is found right on the border of what, at one time, and thankfully no longer, was the ghetto of the Jews of Rome. Someone noted to me, and at the time I was the President of the Commission with relations with the Religious of Judaism, that the occasion was ripe, for a first discrete encounter with the Pope and the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff; and that, in fact, the Rabbi would be available to encounter the Pope. The moment seemed particularly suited since in those same days there was a vote on the referendum of abortion and it would have been auspicated that two religious authorities, one Christian and the other Jewish, manifested in some way their firm opposition to this sort of proposed legislation. It, however, could not deal with a common declaration of their mutual expression of profound agreement founded on the common Biblical heredity, which is clearly contrary to such a violation of the right to life. Having listened to my Superiors, and having had the authorization to proceed, I proposed an encounter with the Holy Father to Professor Toaff in an adjacent venue next to the Church, shortly after the Eucharistic celebration. Before the encounter, the Rabbi showed me his text on the theme of the Referendum, which I was allowed to show to His Excellency Torrela, then the Vice-President of the Commission, today the Emeritus Archbishop of Terragona. The text was irreproachable.

The encounter, short but very cordial, transpired as expected, without witnesses (except the undersigned) and was limited, still as planned, to an expression of mutual convergence based on the Biblical heredity, on the right to life. It lasted no more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour; but the door was already open. The Bishop of Rome and the Chief Rabbi of the Israelite Community of the same city had met for the first time in history.

Five years later, at the beginning of 1986, during lunch, where the Holy Father had invited, as he usually does, some of his collaborators there was a discussion about an upcoming pastoral visit of the Pope in a certain country. In relation to this trip, there was a proposal, on the part of the Bishop of a certain city on the program, that the Holy Father visit a synagogue of the city, on the one hand, because of the interest of the Jewish community in the pastoral visit, on the other side, because of the value of the example that this would have for Judeo-Christian relations.

At this point, I remember that there was an exchange of looks between me and one of the present authorities, who was seated in front of me. And we both said, almost at the same time: «But, Holy Father, if you are thinking of going to visit a synagogue, we should start with Rome». The Pope responded by asking if this was possible. To which I responded, having in mind the episode just referred, that the thing seemed very possible to me. The Pope then asked that the terrain be examined and referred back to our authorities.

Which I did the following Monday, without wasting a moment. I called Professor Toaff, asking for an audience in order to speak about an important theme. He gave me an appointment for the next day, Tuesday.

Admitted to his presence, in the welcoming apartment of Via Catalana, I expressed the reason for my visit, with simplicity but not without a certain preoccupation. The Rabbi said, with the words (in Hebrew) from the Psalm 119, 26: baruk ha ba be shem Adonai; and that is: «Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord». Again then, a common reference to the common Word of God, which focused the future visit in the right direction: that of a relationship founded on the common Biblical origins and therefore of a common heredity, the point of departure necessary for our common witness in front of the world. Any of my fears were thus dissipated.

After which, the Rabbi said: «you see; I have a Council and I need to speak with the Council: we meet within two days, Thursday. As soon as I have an answer, I will get into contact with you; let's hope for the best». At that time waiting for two days to me seemed unbearable. I think I prayed intensely so that the decision of the Council would be one of such a welcome as that of the Rabbi.

In fact, before the end of the first day, Wednesday, Professor Toaff called me by telephone, and , to my great surprise, he told me that he had asked for their meeting to be held earlier, and was held that same day; and that the unanimous response of the Council was positive, joyously positive and grateful. I immediately relayed the information to my Superiors and, from here, the mechanisms on both sides were put into action to concord the form and content of an encounter, which in the opinion of everyone, would have been historic.

But one particular was missing: the date, that is a common date, which could have fit into the completely overbooked agenda of the Holy Father and in the no less complicated one of the chief Rabbi. Then it was also necessary to keep in mind the various religious needs of both of the communities with regards to the times and the sacred days.

After a certain hesitation, it was decided on a date after Easter (we were in the month of February). And it was here that, yet again, the Chief Rabbi had a brilliant idea, perhaps the fruit of an inspiration, which surpassed every difficulty. It was he in fact, who proposed Sunday, April 13, the only one, amongst the Sundays after Easter, in which the Pope did not have a scheduled pastoral visit in one of the Roman parishes, since that morning there was a ceremony of canonization at Saint Peter's Basilica. This obviously, the Rabbi ignored.

I passed on the proposal to my Superiors. The first reaction of the then Deputy of the Secretary of State was somewhat hesitant; «It is preferred that the Holy Father does not have more than one important ceremony scheduled in the same day» he said. But he immediately understood that, for this ceremony, there would have been an exception. And so it was, as everyone knew.

The undersigned, in the meantime had been given a new post by the Roman Curia. Nominated in the beginning of March as the Vice-President of the Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace, I was ordained a Bishop on the day preceding the visit, Saturday April 12. However, I had been dealing with the great event until the month before, when my nomination was made public. And the Holy Father let me know, a few days before, that notwithstanding the transfer, I was invited to accompany him on the historic visit. And so it happened that my first public outing, as Bishop of the Catholic Church, was to accompany the Bishop of Rome in his visit at the Tempio Maggiore of the Israelite community of his same diocese, where finally the brothers, the older ones and the younger ones, met each other again and hugged each other, just like one time Esau and Jacob, let's hope we are not divided ever again.