SWC Delegation Meets With Pope Benedict XVI and Urges the Pontiff to Lead "Coalition of Good"

A forty-member delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center met today with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience at the Vatican where they urged the Pope to lead a "Coalition of Good" to combat Iranian threats, suicide bombers and international terrorism.

In his remarks, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, pictured left, said, "In our time, the greatest threat to mankind comes not from secularists and atheists, but from religious fanatics and zealots. 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 fundamentalist Imans and Mullahs who claim obedience to their Creator."

Hier added, "The President of Iran, a religious man who prays five times a day has  re-enunciated the words of Adolf Hitler, and openly called for the destruction 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 Nations General Assembly."
(To read Rabbi Hier's full remarks follow this link ).

Following the meeting, Rabbi Hier said, "It was clear from what the Pope said, both publicly and privately, that he considers a coalition of the moderates crucial to the future well being of mankind."

Pope Benedict XVI took the opportunity to personally speak with each one of the 40- member delegation, which included Holocaust survivors. Murray Huberfeld, a member of the delegation from New York, told the Pontiff that his visit to the Vatican was particularly meaningful because his mother was hidden and spared extermination by a righteous Christian family during the Holocaust.

Rabbi Hier and Wiesenthal Center Board of Trustees Chairman Larry Mizel, pictured right, invited the Pope to attend the dedication ceremony for the Center for Human Dignity which is currently under construction in Jerusalem.

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