CONGRATULATIONS TO BENEDICT XVI, CONDOLENCES FOR JOHN PAUL II

The President of CRIF, Roger Cukierman, offered the official condolences of the Jewish organization to the newly appointed Archbishop of Paris Monsignor Andre Vingt-Trois. (Archbishop Jean-Marie Lustiger just retired.)

"John Paul II played a major role in the restoration of a climate of friendship between Jews and Christians," said Cukierman. CRIF's President was accompanied by CRIF's Director General Haim Musicant and by Dr Richard Prasquier. "The Pope was deeply moved by the wishes of the French Jewish community for Easter," said Archbishop Vingt-Trois.

Haim Musicant thanked the Archbishop of Paris for his "gesture" during the Sunday mass in memory of the Pope at the Notre-Dame Paris Cathedral. "You came towards us and you told us 'Let peace be with you, Shalom'. We were deeply moved. You were in direct line with the message of the Holy Father," said Musicant.

"This was not an official formality," answered the archbishop, "It was a deliberate gesture towards believers."

Dr Richard Prasquier, Advisor of CRIF’s President Roger Cukierman and Chairman of the French Committee of Yad VaShem, represented the organized French Jewish Community at a ceremony in memory of the late Pope John Paul II in the latter’s home town Wadowice.

Dr Prasquier went on to the site of former extermination camp of Auschwitz Birkenau to inaugurate a memorial located near the Auschwitz museum, the so-called Judenrampe and the « Red House » where the first gas chamber of Birkenau was built.

The visit to Auschwitz was planned before the death of John Paul II. Wadowice is located in the vicinity of the Auschwitz compound. The ceremony for the late pope was meant to be "a testimony of the respect of Jews and Catholics for the memory of the Polish pope," said Dr. Prasquier. "It is important for the Poles to feel that the memory of John Paul II can federate people."

The joint delegation was composed of CRIF's Director General Haim Musicant, Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, Archbishop Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard (Chairman of the Conference of the French Bishops), Monsignor Francis Deniau, Chairman of the Episcopal Commission for the Relations with the Jews, and the Committee's Secretary Father Patrick Desbois.

On the Festive Book in John Paul II's house in Wadowice Haim Musicant paid homage to "this man of faith who renewed the dialogue with the Jews."