VATICAN CITY—An Israeli rabbi will become the first Jewish holy man to address a Roman Catholic synod when it convenes next month to discuss the Bible, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Wednesday.

"It's the first time a rabbi has been invited to speak before the synod," Lombardi told Agence France-Presse, noting that Shear-Yashuv Cohen, Grand Rabbi of Haifa, Israel, would speak on the second day of the October 5-26 event gathering Catholic bishops from around the world.

The second such gathering to be presided over by Pope Benedict XVI since his election in 2005 will have the theme "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church."

More than 200 bishops are expected to attend the synod, a consultative body created in 1965 to ease contacts between bishops and to help the pope set policies for running the Church.

Cohen told the Washington-based Catholic News Service (CNS) in Jerusalem that the invitation was a "signal of hope (bringing) a message of love, coexistence and peace for generations."

He was due to speak on the Jewish interpretation of the Bible, whose first five books comprise the Torah, Judaism's most holy sacred writings.

Cohen told CNS he was able to recite almost the entire Torah by the time he was eight years old.

Benedict has continued the conciliatory steps taken by his predecessor, Polish-born John Paul II, to improve inter-faith relations, but has sometimes stumbled.

Most recently he allowed the reintroduction of a controversial Good Friday prayer calling for the conversion of Jews.

However in April the German-born pontiff won some Jewish hearts and minds when he became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to visit a synagogue in the United States.