” “Germany gave wide media coverage to the visit paid yesterday by Benedict XVI to the Synagogue of Cologne. A few headlines: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (20 August): "A German Pope in a German Synagogue, neither Benedict XVI nor the Jews of Cologne shirked such first time. For both, it was a considerable risk". Frankfurter Rundschau (20 August): "Instead of hiding themselves, the Pope and the Jewish community meet. On friendly terms. With the wish to be close to each other". "As Benedict XVI stepped over the threshold of the Jewish Prayer Home, he wrote reads the online Frankfurter Allgemeine, www.faz.net – a page of religious history. On 14 Aw of the Judaic year 5765, August 19th of the Christian calendar, a Pope, and what’s more a German pope belonging to the war generation, visited for the first time a Synagogue in the country where the murderous mass persecution of the European Jews started. The ceremony, which lasted one hour, and during which the shofar was played, which is used only for the main Judaic festivities, is bound to become one of the most moving moments of the Pope’s visit to Cologne".
” “The local papers put yesterday’s event on their banner headlines: "Benedict XVI: Before God we all have the same dignity" (Kölnische Rundschau). The same paper devotes 7 pages to the different moments lived by the Pope in Cologne yesterday. In particular, it headlines the Pope’s lunch with the young: "The Pope as an interpreter". The Catholic paper Die Tagespost opens with the headline: "The Pope honoured as the Pontifex Maximus", and adds: "An epoch-making meeting in the Synagogue of Cologne. Benedict XVI commemorates the common identity of Jews and Christians".
