Fr Joaquim Carreira risked his life to save others while at a Rome pontifical college during the Second World War.

A nephew of Fr Carreria, also a priest, received a medal on his behalf from Israel's Yad Vashem holocaust museum earlier this month.

The medal was presented at Lisbon's main synagogue.

Fr Carreira hid Jews and others wanted by Nazi authorities from the security forces of Italy's Fascist government.

He continued to hide them after Nazi forces occupied Italy and until the end of World War II.

Fr Carreira died in 1981 and is described by people who knew him as a humble man.

His actions remained largely unknown until Portuguese journalist Antonio Marujo began researching his story.

The investigation led to Fr Carreira's inclusion last year in Yad Vashem's list of Righteous Among the Nations - Israel's honorary title for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

He is the third Portuguese citizen on Yad Vashem's list.

Portugal's parliament passed a resolution in Fr Carreira's honour.

The resolution, which said the priest's actions showed him to be "a man of great faith", was adopted on April 20, the birthday of Adolf Hitler.

Meanwhile, a book about the relationship between Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI has won a Pulitzer Prize.

David Kertzer's "The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe", delves into how the Church's actions pre-war may have aided and abetted fascist anti-semitism in Italy.

Kertzer was able to access Vatican documents from between the World Wars, which St John Paul II had made available to researchers.

Sources

• Jewish Forward
• Brown Daily Herald
• Image: SNP cultura

On May 26, the Pope kissed the hands of half a dozen Holocaust survivors and heard their stories of persecution by the Nazis.

He left an inscription in the Yad Vashem guest book.

"With shame for what man, who was created in the image of God, was able to do.

"With shame for the fact that man made himself the owner of evil.

"With shame that man made himself into God and sacrificed his brothers.

"Never again, never again."

The inscription is signed "Francisco" and the date.

Pope Francis crammed 10 events and five private meetings into the last day of his trip.

He visited the Al-Aqsa mosque at the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site in Islam, and met the Chief Mufti of Jerusalem.

A Vatican spokesman said this was the first time Pope Francis had entered a mosque.

Pope Francis pleaded for "all communities who look to Abraham" to come together in tolerance and respect.

He also visited the Western Wall, the remnant of the Second Temple, which is sacred to Jews, and placed a written prayer in the wall.

In a meeting with Chief Rabbis, the Pope called the progress made in Catholic-Jewish relations "a genuine gift of God".

Pope Francis showed just how much interfaith relations have improved by laying a wreath at the Mt Herzl memorial, the resting place of Zionism pioneer Theodor Herzl.

When Herzl met with Pope Pius X in 1904 to plead for the establishment of a Jewish state, Pius rejected the request.

"The Jews have not recognized our Lord; we therefore cannot recognize the Jewish people," Pius told Herzl.

At the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on May 26 Pope Francis also stopped at a West Jerusalem memorial for victims of terrorism.

The Pope was shown the section dedicated to the victims of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish association in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

The Pontiff also celebrated Mass in the Cenacle, believed to be the site of the Last Supper.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Al-Jazeera
• Haaretz.com
• Image: Ynet News

Blessed Giuseppe Girotti, OP, was beatified in Alba, Italy, the day before the canonisations of St John Paul II and St John XXIII.

In 1995, Israel's Yad Vashem holocaust memorial declared him "righteous among the gentiles".

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