Vatican, 21 October, 2022 / 12:05 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has welcomed the establishment of a Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations in Poland and called for a deepening appreciation of a common heritage.
The Abraham J. Heschel Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations is a new scientific and educational institution of the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin. Its purpose is to deepen Catholic-Jewish relations internationally on the scientific, educational, and cultural levels.
The inauguration ceremony took place Oct. 17. The inauguration was attended, among others, by the scholar Susannah Heschel, daughter of Abraham J. Heschel; the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa; and representatives of the Jewish and Catholic communities.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and influential thinker who also contributed to Jewish-Christian relations.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis told Polish pilgrims at his general audience in Rome: “The need to research one’s own life also applies to entire nations. It is worthwhile to learn about the history of one’s own country in order to recognize the traces of God’s presence in it.”
