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Toaff, who a spokesman said died on Sunday night, was Rome's
chief rabbi in 1986 when then-Pope John Paul II made the first
visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to a synagogue in nearly 2,000
years.
"We gratefully remember this man of peace and dialogue who
received Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to the
Great Synagogue of Rome," Pope Francis told a visiting Jewish
delegation at the Vatican on Monday.
It was during that visit to Rome's temple that John Paul made
the now-famous remark calling Jews "our beloved elder brothers",
marking a milestone in Catholic-Jewish relations.
Several years later, John Paul led the Vatican to diplomatic
relations with Israel and during a visit to Jerusalem's Western
Wall in 2000 he asked for forgiveness for Catholics who
persecuted Jews over the centuries.
Toaff, who retired in 2001, used part of the pope's phrase in
the synagogue for the title of his autobiography "Perfidious
Jews, Elder Brothers," which spoke of the revolutionary
improvement in Catholic-Jewish relations.
The first part of the title came from a Good Friday prayer that
Catholics recited for centuries until the 1960s, when the Church
officially repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for
the death of Jesus.
"He dedicated his life to the cause of inter-religious
dialogue," said Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino.
Toaff, who was born in the Tuscan city of Livorno in 1915,
opposed the fascist regime of dictator Benito Mussolini and was
in the resistance to Nazi occupiers during World War Two.
Captured by the Nazis, he was sentenced to death by firing squad
and forced to dig his own grave, but managed to escape.
After the war, Toaff, who would have turned 100 on April 30,
served as rabbi of Venice and taught at its university.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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