Pope worried about climate of hatred, anti-Semitism

(ANSA) - Vatican City, March 8 - Pope Francis said Friday that he was worried about growing anti-Semitism during an audience in the Vatican with a delegation from the American Jewish Committee. "A source of great concern to me is the spread, in many places, of a climate of wickedness and fury, in which an excessive and depraved hatred is taking root," the pope said. "I think especially of the outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks in various countries.
    "Today I wish to reiterate that it is necessary to be vigilant about such a phenomenon".
    Francis said interreligious dialogue was an important tool in the fight against hatred and antisemitism. "Jews and Christians share a rich spiritual heritage, which allows us to do much good together," he said. "At a time when the West is exposed to a depersonalizing secularism, it falls to believers to seek out each other and to cooperate in making divine love more visible for humanity; and to carry out concrete gestures of closeness to counter the growth of indifference".