Page 26 - Holyland Magazine - Catholic Edition 2014

The Pope’s

Historic

Visit to Yad

Vashem

Pope Francis takes time out from
addressing the issues of the present

to pay respect to those who suffered
the atrocities of the Holocaust

“'A dam, where are you?'” (cf. Gen

3:9). Where are you, O man? What have you
come to? In this place, this memorial of the
Shoah, we hear God’s question echo once
more: 'Adam, where are you?'" His Holiness
Pope Francis, in a homily at Yad Vashem's
Hall of Remembrance, imploring God to have
mercy upon man.

Pope Francis' historic trip to Israel included
a memorable stop with symbolic importance:
a brief, yet signiicant commemorative visit to
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance
and education center in Jerusalem. He was
joined at this moving event by Israeli President
Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, Chairman of the Yad Vashem
Directorate Avner Shalev and Chairman of the
Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau.
Like those of his predecessors, the Pontif's
visit took place in the Hall of Remembrance,
Yad Vashem’s premier site for memorial
ceremonies. An imposing structure, the walls
of the Hall of Remembrance are constructed
of basalt boulders brought from the area
surrounding the Sea of Galilee.

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