Pope to meet Slovak Jews after warning on anti-Semitism
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) Pope Francis prepared to meet with members of Slovakia's remaining Jewish community on Monday, a day after warning of ''the threat of anti-Semitism still lurking'' in Europe and beyond.
The 84-year-old Argentinian pontiff has sought to overcome centuries of Catholic prejudice against the Jewish community and heal ties.
On his first foreign trip since an operation in July, Francis arrived in Slovakia on Sunday after spending a few hours in Hungary earlier in the day.
On Monday, he is due to meet Slovak President Zuzana Caputova and a number of political, religious and civil society leaders.
He is then expected to speak on Rybne Square in what used to be a Jewish neighborhood of the Slovak capital Bratislava where a synagogue that was torn down in Communist times once stood.
He will speak after hearing a Holocaust survivor.
Three days before the pope's arrival, Slovakia's government issued an apology for the first time for the role played in the Holocaust by the Nazi puppet regime in power at the time.
''The Slovak cabinet feels a moral duty to publicly express regret over the crimes committed by the ruling power of that time,'' it said, emphasizing in particular the ''condemnable'' antiJewish laws adopted in 1941.
Under the orders of the then-government headed by a Catholic priest, Jozef Tiso, tens of thousands of Slovak Jews were deported and killed.
A memorial on Rybne Square commemorates the 105,000 victims of the Holocaust in Slovakia.
After the war, most of the survivors either emigrated or stayed and hid their Jewish identity.
Under Communism, Jews were prosecuted and jailed for alleged Zionist crimes, and the regime banned practicing their religion.
The community now numbers only around 2,000 people and antiJewish attitudes remain strong in Slovakia, a predominantly Catholic country.