Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, chosen as the new pope, was the brains behind Pope John Paul II’s reconciliation with the Jews, a Jewish official said.

Rabbi Israel Singer, chairman of the World Jewish Congress, called Ratzinger, who took the name of Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, 'the architect of the policy that John Paul II fulfilled with regard to relations with the Jews. He is the architect of the ideological policy to recognize, to have full relations with Israel.' Ratzinger, from Germany, succeeds John Paul, who died April 2. The Vatican’s chief theologian under John Paul, Ratzinger, 78, is considered a conservative. But in 2002, he authorized the publication of a report that stated that 'the Jewish messianic wait is not in vain.'

That document also expressed regret that certain passages in the Christian Bible condemning individual Jews have been used to justify anti-Semitism.

- served up by Ralphie @ 11:46 AM