Vatican City (Fides Service) - "In these days there resound dangerous clamours of war. We, Jews and Catholics, are aware of the urgent mission to implore from the eternal God and Creator the gift of peace and to be ourselves builders of peace". This call for common prayer for peace was addressed by Pope John Paul II to the chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, whom he received in audience on 13 February with a delegation of the Jewish community in Rome. "Your visit gives me an opportunity to underline the Catholic Church's strong desire to build bonds of friendship and reciprocal collaboration with the Jewish community - the Pope said-. It must be said that in the past our communities lived side by side a history at times "tormented" in which episode of hostility and diffidence were not lacking. The Nostra Aetate document of the Second Vatican Council, the gradual application of the Council's words, gestures of friendship on both sides have however continued in recent years to orient our relations towards ever grater reciprocal understanding". Lstly the Holy Father recalled that Shalom! "means salvation, happiness, harmony, and it emphasises that peace is a gift of God; a fragile gift, placed in the hands of men which must be safeguarded with commitment by our communities" See address in Italian at www.fides.org SL (Fides Service 5/2/2003 EM lines 16 Words: 262)