Remarks made by Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center at a private audience at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI:

Remarks made by Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center at aprivate audience at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI:

"Your Holiness, we appreciate very much your kind invitation to dialogue and exchange views, particularly inthese critical times in a world desperate for moral clarity and civility. It is very appropriate that the Wiesenthal Center’s third visit to the Vatican coincides with the 40thAnniversary of Nostra Aetate, the historic Declaration of the Second Vatican Council which condemned ‘antisemitism directed against the Jews at whatever time and by whomsoever.’It is that Declaration that set the stage for meetings such as ours. Prior to that historic step, Jews were often held in contempt and derided as an accursed people. Millionssuffered through the ages because there were none to defend them.

Only in our lifetime, did a handful of great leaders, led by Pope John XXIII, muster the courage to speak outagainst these flagrant violations of G-d’s law; none with greater conviction and determination then Pope John Paul II, whose message of friendship and inclusion of the Jewishpeople touched the hearts of millions around the world. We are grateful, Your Holiness, of your affirmation of that friendship as you declared during your visit to the synagoguein Cologne when you said, ‘I wish to re-affirm that I intend to continue on the path to improve relations and friendship with the Jewish people, following the decisive lead givenby Pope John Paul II.’

A few weeks ago, humanity lost another great man of conviction, Simon Wiesenthal, often referred to as the‘Conscience of the Holocaust’ - who lost 89 members of his family and emerged from the inferno of the death camps, not to seek vengeance, but in search of justice on behalf ofthose who could no longer speak for themselves. He lived his message that, ‘freedom is not a gift from heaven, it is something we must fight for each and every day,’ that if we donot speak out against the murderers of today, then we will force our children and grandchildren to contend with the murderers of tomorrow. It is that message that inspires us tospeak out when Christians are forsaken in North Korean Gulags, when Muslims suffer in Darfur, when innocent Hindus, Buddhists and Jews are murdered in suicide attacks. TragicallyMr. Wiesenthal’s message still resonates today. A mere sixty years after Auschwitz, antisemitism has again found a fertile home in Europe, threatening the stability of Jews andJewish institutions.

Today, the greatest threat to mankind comes not from secularists and atheists, but from religious fanatics andzealots. Today those who help recruit and inspire terrorists to murder innocent civilians by promising them a place in heaven are not ungodly political leaders, but fundamentalistImans and Mullahs who claim obedience to their Creator. The President of Iran, a religious man who prays five times a day has re-enunciated the words of Adolf Hitler, and openlycalled for the obliteration of the State of Israel in violation of the United Nations Charter; a threat that has drawn rebuke from the Vatican but not yet from the United NationsGeneral Assembly. Recent history has taught us the brutal consequences of a world silent in the face of evil. Allowing such a regime to acquire nuclear weapons would be likeentrusting an addict to stand guard over his drugs.

The future of civilization depends on our ability to reach out and find that coalition of the good; those whostill believe that nothing enduring was ever created by hate, no future made brighter by tyranny, no faith strengthened by fanaticism. We must do everything in our power to unitethose tenets of the righteous and the just to do our share of Tikun Olam (repair the world), so that we can restore the balance and return to our Creator, the magnificent world heintended."

Rabbi Hier concluded by informing the Pope about the Wiesenthal Center’s new Center for Human Dignity that willsoon begin construction in the heart of Jerusalem. The Center of Human Dignity, Hier said, will be ‘an institution that will promote mutual respect and social responsibilitybetween Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors throughout the region.’