” “"This morning an event marked by an extraordinary momentum took place" said Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman of the Vatican press office, in commenting on the visit by Benedict XVI to the Synagogue of Cologne. "I had the impression the spokesman said that this morning you could capture very different images that however portrayed the same meaning. The visit of John Paul II to the Synagogue in Rome came back to my mind with the images of his visit to the Yad Vaschem wall in Jerusalem. This visit by Benedict XVI to the Synagogue of Cologne, decided on his own initiative, comes to add to the images of the previous two visits. Images that are not to be considered as complete but that form a dialogue that continues into the future". Navarro-Valls then said that the Pope gave, as memento to the Jewish Community, a fac-simile of the "Vatican Code", of which there are very few copies, which had been prepared ad hoc for this occasion. When asked if the Pope plans to visit the Holy Land, Navarro answered that "there aren’t any trips on the agenda for the time being", even though "many invitations have been received". And finally regarding the diplomatic incident that occurred in late July with Israel, he said: "an observation was made, a response was given. The incident was clarified, I think there is nothing else to be said. But it is important to distinguish an incident that occurs at the purely diplomatic level from one that involves inter-religious relationships". Heiner Koch, secretary general of the WYD, then informed the journalists that this morning the Holy Father celebrated Mass with a group of 20 youth from various Countries who have been working on the preparation of the WYD for over a year. The Pope told them that he had been "very moved yesterday evening" and that he had experienced "an explosion of joy".
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