In response to Pope Francis ’ s hospitalization , the AJC delegation gathered outside the main synagogue in Rome to pray for his full and speedy recovery .
AJC , the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people and the worldwide Jewish pioneer of interfaith understanding , enjoys close , cooperative relations with the Vatican , as well as with American Catholic leadership . AJC played a central role in the international contacts between the Holy See and the Jewish people during the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council , and has continued to be a leader in advancing Catholic-Jewish relations since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate .
This three-day AJC leadership mission to the Vatican was the third of Pope Francis ’ s papacy . “ I am very grateful to you for the distinguished contribution you have made to dialogue and fraternity between Jews and Catholics ,” the Pope told an AJC leadership delegation in February 2014 .
In March 2019 , addressing an AJC leadership delegation , the pope spoke of the church ’ s longstanding relationship with AJC and the value of interreligious dialogue . “ Your commitment to Jewish-Christian dialogue goes back to Nostra Aetate , a milestone in our journey of fraternal reckoning ,” he said .
In addition to meeting with cardinals , archbishops , and bishops — the senior leaders of the Catholic Church — AJC ’ s delegation met with the ambassadors to the Holy See of the United States and Israel , the leaders of the Roman and wider Italian Jewish community , and American seminarians at the Pontifical North American College .
The delegation of 40 AJC leaders included Rabbi David Rosen , AJC International Director of Interreligious Affairs , who was knighted by the Vatican in 2005 ; Rabbi Noam Marans , AJC Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations ; Lisa Palmieri-Billig , AJC Representative in Rome and Liaison to the Holy See ; and AJC Interreligious Affairs Chair Amy Levin Ragen .