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08/31/2013
Francis to meet World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder


RONALD S. LAUDER
The Pope will meet the organisation’s president in a private audience on Monday morning

ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis is to hold his first private audience with a top Jewish figure next Monday. The Pope will meet the President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

Issues to be discussed during the meeting include the situation in the Middle East, in particular Syria (which is being followed closely by the Vatican and the Jewish community), growing anti-Semitism in the world and the potential for Catholic-Jewish cooperation. The two leaders will also address other issues to do with religious freedom in Europe, such as Poland’s ban on kosher slaughter and Germany’s anti-circumcision law. The two may also talk about Pope Pius XII’s controversial beatification process.

Since his election, Francis has held a number of meetings with rabbis and members of the world Jewish community. He even sent a private invitation to the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, to attend the mass for the inauguration of his pontificate. The Rabbi of Buenos Aires, Abraham Skorka, whom he became friends with in Argentina (the two also co-wrote the book of dialogue “On Heaven and Earth”), came to visit him with a delegation of religious leaders invited by the Focolare Movement. But the Pope’s meeting with Lauder will be his first private meeting with a representative of the Catholic Church’s “older brother in the faith” since the start of his pontificate.

A businessman, billionaire and former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Lauder, has been head of the Jewish Congress since June 2007.

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