Homily of Benedict XVI at the Mount of Olives

"In the Holy Land There Is Room for Everyone"


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JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the homily Benedict XVI gave today during a Mass in the Valley of Josaphat in Jerusalem, in front of the basilica of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

"Christ is risen, alleluia!" With these words I greet you with immense affection. I thank Patriarch Fouad Twal for his words of welcome on your behalf, and before all else I express my joy at being able to celebrate this Eucharist with you, the Church in Jerusalem. We are gathered beneath the Mount of Olives, where our Lord prayed and suffered, where he wept for love of this City and the desire that it should know "the path to peace" (Lk 19:42), and whence he returned to the Father, giving his final earthly blessing to his disciples and to us. Today let us accept this blessing. He gives it in a special way to you, dear brothers and sisters, who stand in an unbroken line with those first disciples who encountered the Risen Lord in the breaking of the bread, those who experienced the outpouring of the Spirit in the Upper Room and those who were converted by the preaching of Saint Peter and the other apostles. My greeting also goes to all those present, and in a special way to those faithful of the Holy Land who for various reasons were not able to be with us today.

As the Successor of Saint Peter, I have retraced his steps in order to proclaim the Risen Christ in your midst, to confirm you in the faith of your fathers, and to invoke upon you the consolation which is the gift of the Paraclete. Standing before you today, I wish to acknowledge the difficulties, the frustration, and the pain and suffering which so many of you have endured as a result of the conflicts which have afflicted these lands, and the bitter experiences of displacement which so many of your families have known and -- God forbid -- may yet know. I hope my presence here is a sign that you are not forgotten, that your persevering presence and witness are indeed precious in God's eyes and integral to the future of these lands. Precisely because of your deep roots in this land, your ancient and strong Christian culture, and your unwavering trust in God's promises, you, the Christians of the Holy Land, are called to serve not only as a beacon of faith to the universal Church, but also as a leaven of harmony, wisdom and equilibrium in the life of a society which has traditionally been, and continues to be, pluralistic, multiethnic and multireligious.

In today's second reading, the Apostle Paul tells the Colossians to "seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1). His words resound with particular force here, beneath the Garden of Gethsemani, where Jesus accepted the chalice of suffering in complete obedience to the Father's will, and where, according to tradition, he ascended to the right hand of the Father to make perpetual intercession for us, the members of his Body. Saint Paul, the great herald of Christian hope, knew the cost of that hope, its price in suffering and persecution for the sake of the Gospel, yet he never wavered in his conviction that Christ's resurrection was the beginning of a new creation. As he tells us: "When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, you too will be revealed with him in glory!" (Col 3:4).

Paul's exhortation to "set our minds on the things that are above" must constantly echo in our hearts. His words point us to the fulfillment of faith's vision in that heavenly Jerusalem where, in fidelity to the ancient prophecies, God will wipe away the tears from every eye, and prepare a banquet of salvation for all peoples (cf. Is 25:6-8; Rev 21:2-4).

This is the hope, this the vision, which inspires all who love this earthly Jerusalem to see her as a prophecy and promise of that universal reconciliation and peace which God desires for the whole human family. Sadly, beneath the walls of this same City, we are also led to consider how far our world is from the complete fulfillment of that prophecy and promise. In this Holy City where life conquered death, where the Spirit was poured out as the first-fruits of the new creation, hope continues to battle despair, frustration and cynicism, while the peace which is God's gift and call continues to be threatened by selfishness, conflict, division and the burden of past wrongs. For this reason, the Christian community in this City which beheld the resurrection of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit must hold fast all the more to the hope bestowed by the Gospel, cherishing the pledge of Christ's definitive victory over sin and death, bearing witness to the power of forgiveness, and showing forth the Church's deepest nature as the sign and sacrament of a humanity reconciled, renewed and made one in Christ, the new Adam.

Gathered beneath the walls of this city, sacred to the followers of three great religions, how can we not turn our thoughts to Jerusalem's universal vocation? Heralded by the prophets, this vocation also emerges as an indisputable fact, a reality irrevocably grounded in the complex history of this city and its people. Jews, Muslims and Christians alike call this city their spiritual home. How much needs to be done to make it truly a "city of peace" for all peoples, where all can come in pilgrimage in search of God, and hear his voice, "a voice which speaks of peace" (cf. Ps 85:8)!
Jerusalem, in fact, has always been a city whose streets echo with different languages, whose stones are trod by people of every race and tongue, whose walls are a symbol of God's provident care for the whole human family. As a microcosm of our globalized world, this City, if it is to live up to its universal vocation, must be a place which teaches universality, respect for others, dialogue and mutual understanding; a place where prejudice, ignorance and the fear which fuels them, are overcome by honesty, integrity and the pursuit of peace. There should be no place within these walls for narrowness, discrimination, violence and injustice. Believers in a God of mercy -- whether they identify themselves as Jews, Christians or Muslims -- must be the first to promote this culture of reconciliation and peace, however painstakingly slow the process may be, and however burdensome the weight of past memories.

Here I would like to speak directly to the tragic reality -- which cannot fail to be a source of concern to all who love this City and this land -- of the departure of so many members of the Christian community in recent years. While understandable reasons lead many, especially the young, to emigrate, this decision brings in its wake a great cultural and spiritual impoverishment to the City. Today I wish to repeat what I have said on other occasions: in the Holy Land there is room for everyone! As I urge the authorities to respect, to support and to value the Christian presence here, I also wish to assure you of the solidarity, love and support of the whole Church and of the Holy See.

Dear friends, in the Gospel we have just heard, Saint Peter and Saint John run to the empty tomb, and John, we are told, "saw and believed" (Jn 20:8). Here in the Holy Land, with the eyes of faith, you, together with the pilgrims from throughout the world who throng its churches and shrines, are blessed to "see" the places hallowed by Christ's presence, his earthly ministry, his passion, death and resurrection, and the gift of his Holy Spirit. Here, like the Apostle Saint Thomas, you are granted the opportunity to "touch" the historical realities which underlie our confession of faith in the Son of God. My prayer for you today is that you continue, day by day, to "see and believe" in the signs of God's providence and unfailing mercy, to "hear" with renewed faith and hope the consoling words of the apostolic preaching, and to "touch" the sources of grace in the sacraments, and to incarnate for others their pledge of new beginnings, the freedom born of forgiveness, the interior light and peace which can bring healing and hope to even the darkest of human realities.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims in every century have venerated the stone which tradition tells us stood before the entrance to the tomb on the morning of Christ's resurrection. Let us return frequently to that empty tomb. There let us reaffirm our faith in the victory of life, and pray that every "heavy stone" that stands before the door of our hearts, blocking our complete surrender to the Lord in faith, hope and love, may be shattered by the power of the light and life which shone forth from Jerusalem to all the world that first Easter morn. Christ is risen, alleluia! He is truly risen, alleluia!



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Pontiff's Words at Latin Patriarchate Co-Cathedral

I Give Thanks for "the Hidden Apostolate of the Contemplatives Who Are Present Here"

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JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of Benedict XVI's greeting given today to some 300 people, including contemplative religious, at the Latin patriarchate's co-cathedral of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in Jerusalem.

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Your Beatitude, I thank you for your words of welcome. I also greet the Patriarch Emeritus and I assure you both of my fraternal good wishes and prayers.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I am happy to be here with you today in this Co-Cathedral, where the Christian community in Jerusalem continues to gather, as it has been doing for centuries, ever since the earliest days of the Church. Here in this city, Peter first preached the Good News of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost, when about three thousand souls were added to the number of the disciples. Here too the first Christians "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). From Jerusalem, the Gospel has gone out "to all the earth ... to the ends of the world" (Ps 19:4), yet all the time, the Church's missionary effort has been sustained by the prayers of the faithful, gathered around the altar of the Lord, invoking the mighty power of the Holy Spirit upon the work of preaching.

Above all, it is the prayers of those whose vocation, in the words of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, is to be "love, deep down in the heart of the Church" (Letter to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart) that sustains the work of evangelization. I want to express a particular word of appreciation for the hidden apostolate of the contemplatives who are present here, and to thank you for your generous dedication to lives of prayer and self-denial. I am especially grateful for the prayers you offer for my universal ministry, and I ask you to continue to commend to the Lord my work of service to God's people all over the world. In the words of the Psalmist, I ask you also to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Ps 122:6), to pray without ceasing for an end to the conflict that has brought so much suffering to the peoples of this land. And now, I give you my blessing.

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana




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"You Stand Before a Small Flock that Is Shrinking"

Latin Patriarch's Welcome Address to Benedict XVI



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JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the welcoming address the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, gave to Benedict XVI at the beginning of Mass in the Valley of Josaphat, in front of the basilica of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives.

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Holy Father,

The Church of Jerusalem fervently welcomes you to this city where Jesus Christ was welcomed by the crowd shouting "Hosanna in the Highest, Hosanna to the one who comes in the name of the Lord" (Mt. 21:9). Welcome to the city, where He obtained the victory over sin and death, and salvation for those who have faith in him. Here, with you, the Church takes loving care of and comes to pray at those places, where Our Lord carried out his awesome tasks of redemption. These sites are witnesses of the past and the truth of our present lives.

Just a few yards from here, Jesus said to his most favored disciples "Remain here, and watch with me" (Mt. 26:39). But these same disciples closed their eyes, not losing sleep over Jesus' agony, only a short distance away in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Holy Father, today, in many ways, the situation has not changed: around us, we have the agony of the Palestinian people, who dream of living in a free and independent Palestinian State, but have not found its realization; and the agony of the Israeli people, who dream of a normal life in peace and security and, despite all their military and mass media might, have not found its realization.

And the international community, just like Jesus' beloved disciples, stands apart, eyes drooping with indifference, unconcerned with the agony of the Holy Land, which has gone on for sixty-one years, and does not seriously rouse itself, to find a just solution. In this Valley of Jehoshaphat, a valley of tears, we raise our prayer for the realization of the dreams of these two peoples. We raise our prayer for Jerusalem, to be shared by the two peoples and three religions.

On this very Mount of Olives, Jesus wept in vain over Jerusalem, and continues to do so, with the disillusioned refugees, without any hope of return, with the widows of the victims of violence and the many families in this city, who every day see their homes demolished because, it is said, "they were built illegally," when the whole situation is illegal and still looking for a solution

Above where we stand now, Our Lord cried out: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children -- all your children, Jews, Christians and Muslim -- and you would not!" (Lk 13:34)

Dear Holy Father, we ask you to see and understand the lives of your poor children here, and to strengthen our faith and hope. Your visit brings the awareness and solidarity of the entire Church, and the attention of the world to this region, these peoples, their story, their struggles and hopes, their smiles and tears.

For one who suffers -- someone infirm, a refugee, a prisoner or one bearing the weight of injustice -- the greatest distress, is to think that he has been forgotten and that no one sees, knows or is moved by what he undergoes. Your visit today does much to comfort hearts and to say to all, that the God of compassion and those who believe in Him are not blind, have not forgotten and are not unmoved.

Your Holiness, you are the successor to St. Peter, charged by the Lord to "strengthen [his] brethren" in their faith. (Lk 22:32) This we entreat you then, and we cry out with the Apostles in the Gospel, "Increase our faith!" (Lk 17:25)

Holy Father, you stand before a small flock that is shrinking, that suffers from emigration, largely due to the effects of the unjust occupation and all its humiliation, violence and hatred. Yet we know that the faith is the victory that overcomes the world, (1 Jn 5:4) and that through it, we are able to see and recognize Jesus Christ in every person. With Jesus and in Jesus, we can enjoy here and now the peace that the world can neither give nor take out of our hearts. This peace means serenity, faith, a welcoming spirit and the joy of living and working in this Land.

Therefore we take advantage of your blessed presence among us to cry out with the suffering father in the Gospel who begged Jesus to free his son from long lasting torments "I do believe, help my unbelief."

Holy Father, as we welcome you as the successor to St. Peter, help our unbelief. Pray with us now to our Heavenly Father for all the inhabitants of the Holy Land; and to the Mother of Sorrows, who did not shirk from standing beneath the cross of her suffering son, that she help us have her same faith in God's loving providence, accepting all even before we understand.
Oh Lord, Strengthen our faith!

+ Fouad Twal, Patriarch



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Prayer Placed by Pope in Jerusalem's Wailing Wall

"Send Your Peace Upon This Holy Land, Upon the Middle East"

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JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the prayer Benedict XVI placed in one of the cracks of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem today.

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God of all the ages,
on my visit to Jerusalem, the "City of Peace",
spiritual home to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,
I bring before you the joys, the hopes and the aspirations,
the trials, the suffering and the pain of all your people throughout the world.
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
hear the cry of the afflicted, the fearful, the bereft;
send your peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East,
upon the entire human family;
stir the hearts of all who call upon your name,
to walk humbly in the path of justice and compassion.
"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him" (Lam 3:25)!


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Catholic, 82, who rescued Jews from Nazis excited to meet pope

By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service

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JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Eighty-two-year-old Ivan Vranetic said he felt excited like a little boy about meeting Pope Benedict XVI.

A Catholic born in Yugoslavia in 1927, Vranetic and six Jewish Holocaust survivors met the pope during the memorial ceremony at the Yad Vashem Hall of Remembrance May 11.

"It is very emotional for me," said Vranetic, who now lives in Israel and was given honorary citizenship. "The pope is not just a regular person. It is a big honor for me and for all my family. I want the pope to bring peace to the world. I have always wanted peace all my life. That is why I did what I did."

In 1970 Vranetic was honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority with its "Righteous Among the Nations" award for helping hide Jewish refugees in his hometown of Topeka, Croatia, when he was 17 years old.

Vranetic, now chairman of the Society for the Righteous Among the Nations in Israel, said his first attempt to help an older Jewish doctor from his village who was struggling with a heavy bag was met with such a beating from a Nazi-allied Croatian soldier that he lost the hearing in his left ear.

The teenager risked his life aiding Jews who had escaped to his village despite the fact that the majority of the people in the village supported the Ustasha, the Nazi-allied Croatian militia. He befriended the refugees, found them places to hide, and moved them to new refuges when they were no longer safe in the old hiding places. He provided them with food and other supplies.

After the war, he kept in touch with many of the Jews he had saved, among them his future wife, Arna Montilio. Montilio moved to Israel with her young daughter, whom Vranetic also helped save. Montilio's first husband was killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia.

Some 20 years after the war Vranetic came to Israel and married Montilio, who died 12 years ago. Vranetic was accompanied at Yad Vashem by his grandson.

"Only someone who has lived (through the Holocaust years) can understand what it was like," Vranetic said. "Today, still, 70 percent of people hate the other because they're from a different religion or different group."

Though his parents were not specifically religious, he was educated to love and respect others, he said.

"I received a different type of education from my parents," he said, explaining how he was able to ignore the threat to his own life and help rescue Jews. "It wasn't just religious; it was something else."

He said only "abnormal" people could claim that the Holocaust had not happened.

"The entire world knows what the Holocaust was like and what that man called Hitler did in every country he went to," said Vranetic.

END


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American who met pope was only Holocaust survivor from his family

By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service


JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Edward Mosberg cannot forget certain images: A Nazi soldier ripping a baby from his mother's arms and smashing the baby's head against a wall; another soldier shooting through a rucksack to kill a hidden child.

Among the six Holocaust survivors to meet with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Yad Vashem Hall of Remembrance May 11, Mosberg, now an American and the only survivor from his extended family, said he would have liked a moment with Pope Benedict to tell him about his mother, father and two sisters, in addition to his aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Mosberg, now 83 and a resident of Union Township, N.J., was 13 years old when the Nazis entered his native Krakow, Poland, and put his family into the Krakow Ghetto.

"We were so happy we were all together," he recalled.

But soon his father was killed and, one by one, his grandparents were taken to the gas chambers. When the Nazis liquidated the ghetto March 13, 1943, his remaining family was sent to the Plaszow concentration camp, which was where German Catholic businessman Oskar Schindler drew up his famous list, saving the lives of more than 1,000 Jews. Mosberg and his family, however, were not among those on the list.

From Plaszow, Mosberg's mother and sisters were taken to the Nazi-run Auschwitz concentration camp, where his mother was killed in the gas chambers. His sisters, Helena and Carolina, were taken to the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland. On the night before liberation, they were among a group of 7,000 young women the Nazis shot, killed and threw into the Baltic Sea.

Mosberg said he survived because he was a strong teenager able to do all kinds of work. He was taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria and forced to work in the stone mines, carrying heavy stones on his back up and down 186 steps all day.

"If you stopped for a moment, they either shot you or they pushed you off the cliff to your death," he said.

Although U.S. troops liberated Mauthausen May 5, 1945, the Nazis made one last attempt to kill the group of men Mosberg was with. Telling the men the Americans were coming and that they wanted to save them from the soldiers, the Nazi guards rounded them up into a cave rigged with dynamite. Mosberg said it was a miracle that the dynamite did not go off, and he was saved.

Alone, 19 years old and ill, Mosberg spent eight months in Italy for medical treatment before returning to Krakow, where he met his wife, Cecile, and her father, the only survivors from their family.

Following their wedding in Belgium, in 1951 the couple moved to the United States, where Mosberg went into the construction business.

Mosberg said he had felt a special affinity for Pope John Paul II since the late pope was Polish. They even had friends in common, some of whom Pope John Paul met with regularly when he returned to Krakow, said Mosberg.

Despite Pope Benedict's German background and his forced membership in the Hitler Youth movement as a child, Mosberg said he sees "something good" in the pope's face.

One cannot forget, said Mosberg, that the pope was a child when he was forced to join the Hitler Youth.

"He is German but I don't see him as a German; I see him as a human being and head of the Catholic Church," said Mosberg. "I want to give him all the respect that I can. I consider it a big honor to meet the pope and shake his hand. I hope the relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people will get better."

While he cannot forget or forgive what happened during the Holocaust -- only the dead can forgive what was done to them, he said -- he feels people must live in the present and future.

"We can't go with what was in the past. We have to go to with what will be," said Mosberg, who has three daughters -- one of whom accompanied her parents to Israel -- and six granddaughters.

END

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Visiting Holocaust memorial, pope says hatred must never reign again

By John Thavis and Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service


Pope Benedict XVI looks on as Vatican representatives lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem May 11. (CNS/Reuters)


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JERUSALEM (CNS) -- On his first day in Jerusalem, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and said the suffering of Jews under the Nazi extermination campaign must "never be denied, belittled or forgotten."

The pope called the Holocaust an atrocity that disgraced mankind, and said the church is committed to working tirelessly "to ensure that hatred will never reign in the hearts of men again."

With his head bowed and his hands folded, the 82-year-old pope prayed silently before an eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance, a stone monument to the 6 million Jews killed in World War II. He stood in the tent-shaped structure, where the names of some of the Nazi death camps are inscribed in the floor, as a prayer was recited for the victims, the resistance fighters and those who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis.

In a brief talk, Pope Benedict said he had come "to stand in silence before this monument, erected to honor the memory of the millions of Jews killed in the horrific tragedy of the Shoah."

"They lost their lives, but they will never lose their names: These are indelibly etched in the hearts of their loved ones, their surviving fellow prisoners, and all those determined never to allow such an atrocity to disgrace mankind again," he said.

Most of all, he said, their names are fixed in God's memory.

"May the names of these victims never perish! May their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten! And may all people of good will remain vigilant in rooting out from the heart of man anything that could lead to tragedies such as this!" he said.

Pope Benedict's May 11 visit to the memorial came after a period of Catholic-Jewish tension, following the pope's lifting of the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who publicly minimized the extent of the Holocaust. After sharp criticism from Jewish and other leaders, the pope reaffirmed his dedication to improving Catholic-Jewish ties.

Israela Hargil, 70, was one of six Holocaust survivors invited to meet the pope at the memorial and, although she said she is indebted to a Catholic for her survival, she also said she hesitated going to the papal event.

Hargil said she hesitated because the pope, as a boy, was a member of the Hitler Youth movement, an enrollment that he has said was obligatory. Hargil also said she was not happy about Pope Benedict welcoming back into the church Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of St. Pius X who had denied the extent of the Holocaust.

"The pope said (he) made a mistake (about Williamson) and that is a big thing," she said, explaining why she finally decided to accept Yad Vashem's invitation.

"I owe my life to Catholics and to the Poles who saved me," said Hargil.

At Yad Vashem, the pope, who lived under the Nazi regime in his native Germany, did not analyze the specific causes of the Holocaust. Instead, he focused on the remembrance theme of the memorial.

"One can weave an insidious web of lies to convince others that certain groups are undeserving of respect. Yet, try as one might, one can never take away the name of a fellow human being," he said.

And rather than remember his own personal experiences under Nazism, he made an effort to put himself in the place of the Jewish victims.

"I can only imagine the joyful expectation of their parents as they anxiously awaited the birth of their children. What name shall we give this child? What is to become of him or her?" the pope said.

"Who could have imagined that they would be condemned to such a deplorable fate!" he said.

"As we stand here in silence, their cry still echoes in our hearts. It is a cry raised against every act of injustice and violence. It is a perpetual reproach against the spilling of innocent blood," he said.

The pope later signed the memorial's visitors' book with phrase from the Book of Lamentations, "His mercies are not spent."

He quoted the scriptural passage at greater length in his talk, saying it was an important affirmation of trust in God that is full of significance for both Jews and Christians. "The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness," the passage began.

One of the survivors the pope met, 83-year-old Edward Mosberg, told reporters afterward that the meeting was very emotional.

"I told the pope that he was born in Germany, but I don't look at him as a German; I look at him as a human being and head of the Catholic Church and I give him my respect," Mosberg said.

"But I also told him he knows that the Holocaust happened and that as head of the Catholic Church His Holiness should condemn all denials," he said.

Dan Landsberg, another survivor, said the ceremony and meeting with the pope was a very solemn occasion.

"I feel like the circle has been closed," he said. "There is peace between us and the church. I think it is respectful for the pope to be here and to respect this place and its history."

Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate, described the papal visit as "positive, important, a step forward, unique, exciting."


But at the same time, he said, he was disappointed "the pope did not mention the Nazi German perpetrators" of the Holocaust.

Hargil, the survivor who hesitated about meeting the pope, was accompanied to the ceremony by her 12-year-old granddaughter.

She told Catholic News Service that she was 4 years old and living in Brody, then part of Poland, in 1943 when the Catholic Miklaszewski family took her in. Hargil's father had worked for Jacenty Miklaszewski, whom she described as "very religious."

"He was ... very straightforward ... and took his faith very seriously. He lived his faith ... and saved me and other (Jews) as well, including my father," said Hargil.

The Miklaszewskis gave Hargil the Polish name of Ewa and introduced her as a niece whose parents had died in a bombing. Hargil's mother had been tortured and killed by the Gestapo earlier, but her father stayed in hiding in a bunker in a nearby village.

Hargil attended a preschool run by Catholic nuns and recalls the Masses and Christmas celebrations as the only things of beauty in her life during the war years.

"Everything else was so gray and black and bad," she said, fondly recalling the smell of the church incense and the beauty of the church.

Another survivor who met the pope at Yad Vashem was Ruth Bondy, a journalist, who said she was unsure how she would feel meeting the pope.

"I am not Catholic so I don't feel the same emotions about meeting with him (as a Catholic would), but I know how to respect and appreciate his visit," she said.

Bondy was born in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1923. After the German occupation in 1939 she was forced to work as a farm laborer. Later she was interned in the Nazi-run Terezin Ghetto and in 1943 was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. From there, she was sent to a number of work camps; when the camps were liberated, she was sick with typhus and weighed only 77 pounds.

Following her recovery she returned to Prague and, with the establishment of Israel in 1948, she immigrated.

Bondy has written numerous books and historical research works about the Holocaust period and Czech Jewry. She has won various awards for her writing and translation works.

Along with the survivors, Pope Benedict was introduced to Ivan Vranetic, 82, who said meeting the pope made him feel excited like a little boy. In 1970 Vranetic, a Catholic, was recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority with its "Righteous Among the Nations" award for helping hide Jewish refugees in his hometown of Topeka, Croatia, when he was 17 years old.

END


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