Pope Francis has called on Catholics and Jews to pray for “peace and reconciliation” in the Holy Land and all places in the world affected by conflict and terrorism. Interrupted repeatedly by applause at Rome’s main synagogue on Sunday, the Pope said the Church “recognises the irrevocability of the Old Covenant and the constant and faithful love of God for Israel”. That statement, which he made in his 2013 exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, was repeated in a recent document by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. The document reaffirmed Benedict XVI’s teaching that the Church “neither conducts nor supports” any institutional missionary initiative directed towards Jews. The Pope’s visit featured an exchange of standing ovations. The congregation greeted the Pope on their feet and bid him farewell the same way; he stood and applauded with everyone else when honour was paid to a handful of Holocaust survivors present for the event. “Their sufferings, anguish and tears must never be forgotten,” the Pope said. “And the past must be a lesson to us for the present and the future. The Shoah teaches us that maximum vigilance is always needed in order to intervene quickly in defence of human dignity and peace.” Pope Francis was the third Pope to visit the Rome synagogue, after St John Paul II in 1986 and Benedict XVI in 2010. Citing “the unbreakable bond between Jews and Christians”, Pope Francis said: “Violence against men is in contradiction with any religion worthy of the name.”