Pope Benedict XVI yesterday blessed a bronze bust of his controversial World War II-era predecessor Pius XII, accused of inaction during the Holocaust, the Ansa news agency reported.
At the end of his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, the Pope also welcomed Margherita Marchione, an 88-year-old historian nun living in the United States who is Pius XII's biographer and a key supporter of his canonisation.
While Pius XII was Pope, the Nazis rounded up more than 1,000 Roman Jews for deportation on October 16, 1943. Only a handful returned from the death camps.
In December, Jews were up in arms when Pope Benedict moved Piux XII a step closer to sainthood with a decree bestowing the title "venerable."
The Catholic Church has long argued that Pius XII, who was Pope from 1939 to 1958, saved many Jews who were hidden away in religious institutions, and that his silence was born out of a wish to avoid aggravating their situation.
The bust will be placed in the garden of a sanctuary north of Rome.
In 2008, the Pope infuriated the Jewish community with a decision to lift the excommunication of a known Holocaust denier, English Bishop Richard Williamson.
The Pontiff begins a delicate visit to Cyprus today after a deadly Israeli military raid on a pro-Palestinian aid convoy fanned tensions in the region.
The Pope, 83, also faces opposition from some members of Cyprus's majority Orthodox Christian community.
Monday's raid, in which at least nine people were killed, was "a very sad and distressing event for the general climate" in the Middle East, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told a news conference.
But it would not affect the Pontiff's three-day visit to the island, he added.
The Pope has launched repeated calls for peace in the Middle East, which he visited just over a year ago.
The official mission of the trip to Cyprus is to hand over a working document on a synod of Middle Eastern bishops to discuss regional issues in October.
In excerpts from the document leaked by Italy's Ansa news agency on Tuesday, the Vatican calls the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories a "political injustice imposed on the Palestinians."
The document criticises the occupation, saying it "makes daily life difficult for freedom of movement, the economy and social and religious life."
Pope Benedict, who will visit Cyprus from today to Sunday, will hand over the document to a 12-member pre-synod council during a Mass in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.