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ROME — Pope Benedict XVI was welcome with applause Sunday in a visit to a synagogue that he said would improve relations between Catholics and Jews, many of whom object to his moving World War II pontiff Pius XII toward sainthood.

Some critics contend Pius didn’t do enough to save Jews during the Holocaust. The Vatican defends him, maintaining he used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives.

Several prominent Jews said they would boycott the visit, but applause greeted the pope as he arrived at the temple in the Old Jewish Ghetto, where for hundreds of years Jews were confined under the orders of a 16th century pope.

Benedict warmly shook hands with the synagogue’s retired chief rabbi, Elio Toaff, who welcomed John Paul II when the late pontiff visited the synagogue in a ground-breaking event in 1986.

Across the world, relations between Jews and the Vatican have at times been tense over the Vatican’s sainthood efforts for Pius, who was pontiff from 1939 to 1958. Those tensions flared again after Benedict last month issued a decree hailing the “heroic virtues” of Pius, an important step before beatification, which is the last formal stage before possible sainthood.

Some Jews also have been angered by Benedict’s reaching out to Catholic traditionalists, including his revival of a prayer for the conversion of Jews.

Another sore point is Benedict’s decision to revoke the excommunication of a renegade bishop who had denied that millions of Jews died in the Holocaust. The Vatican has said it wasn’t aware of the bishop’s views when the excommunication was lifted.

In his weekly noon appearance to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square, Benedict predicted that his visit would be a “further step on the path of harmony and friendship” between Catholics and Jews.

He recalled the 1986 visit by John Paul II, who was widely credited with dramatically improving relations with Jews. The late pontiff, who lived under Nazi occupation in his Polish homeland, where Jews were largely annihilated, affectionately referred to Jews as “our elder brothers” in faith during that groundbreaking visit.

Hundreds of police on Saturday enforced strict security around the synagogue along the boulevard lining the Tiber. Officers guided dogs trained to sniff out explosives.

As part of security ahead of the visit, motorists and strollers were banned from passing near the synagogue and the cobblestone streets were cordoned off. The neighborhood is the sentimental heart for Rome’s 12,000-strong Jewish community, although many of them live elsewhere in the capital.

Italy’s Jews are a tiny minority: about 30,000 in a predominantly Roman Catholic country of some 60 million.

The German-born Benedict, ahead of his meeting with Rome’s Jewish community, said that “despite the problems and difficulties, you can breathe in a climate of great respect and dialogue among the believers of the two religions, testimony to how matured the relations are and to the common commitment to value that which unites us.”

Those unifying factors were: “faith in the one God, above all, but also safeguarding life and the family, the aspiration for social justice and peace,” Benedict said.

An elderly Jewish man entering the synagogue shortly before the pope’s scheduled arrival said he was glad the pope was coming despite recent problems.

“Dialogue is always important, and it sets a good example,” said Natan Orvieto. “But there needs to be reciprocal respect and that hasn’t happened a lot lately.”

Under the leadership of John Paul and Benedict, the Vatican has been seeking common ground on such conservative agendas as traditional families while forging stronger relations with other religions, including Judaism and Islam.

Before entering the synagogue, the pope was scheduled to attend a wreath-laying ceremony in front of a plaque that recalls the Oct. 16, 1943, deportation of Jews in Rome during Nazi occupation. Another stop was planned at another memorial, which recalls the 1982 attack on the synagogue by Palestinian terrorists that killed a 2-year-old Jewish boy.

Benedict has visited synagogues in Cologne, Germany, and in New York during papal pilgrimages since he became pontiff in 2005.