"In the darkest time of German and European history, a crazy racist ideology of neo-pagan origin led to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate Hebraism: that’s how what has come to be universally known as the Shoah come into being". Benedict XVI, in this morning’s visit to the Synagogue in Cologne (full text of the address on www.vatican.va), immediately wanted to commemorate the tragedy that took place in Germany last century, "because people no longer recognised God’s holiness and that’s why they also trampled on the sacredness of human life". "A crime that had never been heard of and until them had never been conceived either", this is why the Pope defined it, using John Paul II’s words for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where "millions of Jews men, women and children were killed in the gas chambers and burnt in the crematoriums", he added: "I bow my head before all those who have experienced this manifestation of the mysterium iniquitatis". And again, referring to his predecessor, Benedict XVI recalled the visit he paid on November 17th 1980 to Mainz, in his first journey to Germany, to the Central Jewish Committee and the Rabbinic Conference. (to be continued)
