Pope, Francis I. On 12 September 2013, in an open letter to the editor of an Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, he wrote, ‘God’s fidelity to the close covenant with Israel never failed, and…through the terrible trials of these centuries, the Jews have kept their faith in God. And for this we shall never be sufficiently grateful to them as Church but also as humanity.’ This may be the first time that a pope has publicly recognised that in staying true to their faith, Jews were being loyal to God, not faithless to him.
