Pope stresses human rights, interfaith bonds
Shifts focus in visit to UN, NY synagogue
NEW YORK - Pope Benedict XVI turned his attention from the challenges facing the Catholic Church to those confronting the world yesterday, as he urged global leaders to promote human rights and visited with Jews and Christians of other denominations.
After three days in Washington in which he dwelled on the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and the rise of secularism and materialism, the pope arrived in New York and pivoted immediately to geopolitics and interfaith relations.
His first stop was the United Nations, where the world's diplomats stood and applauded, some with cellphones held aloft to photograph the 81-year-old pontiff as he walked past what he called "the family of nations."
Without naming any country or conflict, the pope praised the UN's power to avert war and warned, "Multilateral consensus continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a small number."
He urged the world to use the advancement of human rights, and not political force, to bring about peace.
"The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security," Benedict said. "Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace."
After his address, the pope visited Park East Synagogue, an Orthodox Jewish congregation on the Upper East Side, where he was greeted by congregants singing a song of peace in Hebrew.
The visit was the first by a pope to an American synagogue.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, who lived under the Nazi occupation in Budapest, introduced the pope, who was raised in Nazi Germany.
"Your Holiness: a heartfelt shalom. Willkommen," he said as the pope sat to his right. "Warm, warm welcome to Park East Synagogue."
Schneier gave the pope a Seder plate for the upcoming Passover holiday and told him his visit was a "reaffirmation of your good will and commitment to Jewish-Catholic relations." He added, "in your lifetime both of us have experienced the ravages of war, the Holocaust, the inhumanity of man to man, but we have also tasted the joy of freedom."
The pope thanked the rabbi for the Seder plate and gave the congregation a replica of a 15th-century illuminated Italian parchment depicting a wedding "according to the law of Moses and Israel."
He asked the congregation to pass on his "good wishes to all members of the Jewish community."
"Dear friends, shalom," the pope said. "It is with joy that I come here just a few hours before your Pesach. . . . I assure you most especially of my closeness at this time, as you prepare to celebrate the great deeds of the Almighty."
Later, he attended an ecumenical prayer service at St. Joseph Parish, a German Catholic Church, where he urged Christians of all denominations to "recall that the unity of the Church flows from the perfect oneness of the Trinitarian God."
Even in a city accustomed to visits by world leaders, the pope's arrival inspired reverence and excitement. New York tabloids were splashed with headlines that included the Daily News's "The Pope of Hope," and the New York Post's declaration: "Pope's Big Apple Weekend."
Yesterday, the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, where the pope is to celebrate Mass today, was thronged by a mix of teenage pilgrims in T-shirts and shorts, priests in collars, tourists with cameras, and protesters holding oversized black-and-white photographs of young victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Today, Benedict plans to tour Fifth Avenue in the popemobile, and tomorrow to celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium and to visit ground zero.
"Seeing him really inspires us as Catholics," said Tony Oleck, 16, a high school student from Michigan who was planning to attend today's Mass with his friend, Matt Galloway, also 16. "He's the father of our faith, our shepherd," Oleck said, and he's visiting "at a time when there's this godless perspective" in the United States.
Nearby, a dozen members of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests said they planned to leaflet near the Cathedral today and Yankee Stadium tomorrow to urge Catholics to find victims and help them heal, a job they said bishops should be doing.
Steve Sheehan, 74, of Brighton, Mass., said he wanted Catholics to follow up on the pope's meeting with victims Thursday by inviting them to their churches to talk.
"I'm glad that this pope spoke to some survivors, and I know some of those survivors personally," said Sheehan who was holding a photograph of a friend who was abused by a priest when she was 11. "What I'm afraid of is that that might be the end of it. Actions speak louder than words."
Paul Kellen of Medford was holding a sign calling for the removal of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the former archbishop of Boston who is now archpriest of a Vatican basilica.
He faulted Benedict for what he called a poor response to the crisis when Benedict was a cardinal and Vatican official.
"He could have stopped the abuse and he did nothing," Kellen said. "Six years later, he's ashamed? Where was the shame six years ago?"
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 