Pope Benedict described his planned visit to Rome's synagogue today as a milestone in Catholic-Jewish relations but acknowledged "problems and difficulties" existed between the two faiths.
In his address in St Peter's Square today, given hours before he was due to visit the synagogue, he told pilgrims and tourists that the event was "another stage on the path of concord and friendship between Catholics and Jews".
He said a climate of respect and dialogue existed with Jews "despite problems and difficulties".
The visit, Pope Benedict's first to Rome's synagogue and his third as pope to a Jewish temple, comes 24 years after Pope John Paul became the first pope in nearly 2,000 years to enter a synagogue and called Jews "our beloved elder brothers".
But it has been put under a cloud over his decision last month to move wartime Pope Pius XII nearer to sainthood.
Many Jews say Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, did not do enough to help Jews facing persecution by Nazi Germany, a position the Vatican rejects.
The visit has also deeply split Italy's Jewish community, with at least one senior rabbi and one Holocaust survivor boycotting it.
Jewish groups reacted angrily last month when Pope Benedict, a German who was drafted into the Hitler Youth and German army as a teenager during the second World War, approved a decree recognising Pius's "heroic virtues".
The two remaining steps to sainthood are beatification and canonisation, which could take many years. Jewish groups wanted the process frozen until more Vatican archives are opened to scholars.
Reuters