Pope Benedict XVI has again paid tribute to Pius XII, the wartime pontiff who is on the road to sainthood but is accused by Jewish and other critics of turning a blind eye to the Nazi Holocaust.

Speaking at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Rome, which was badly damaged by Allied bombing in July 1943, Pope Benedict noted that Pius XII had rushed to the scene to help the thousands of civilian victims. "The generous gesture on that occasion by my venerable predecessor, who immediately ran to help and comfort the stricken population in the smouldering rubble, cannot be erased from historical memories," the Pope said.

Jewish groups have called on the Pope to suspend the process of beatification for Pius XII, the step before sainthood, until until Vatican archives on the wartime period are opened. The Pope has not yet approved beatification, but has repeatedly stressed that Pius XII worked behind the scenes to help many Jews because direct intervention would have made matters worse, risking retaliation by Hitler in revenge.

Last week some Jewish and Muslim groups expressed concern that Benedict's recent remark that interfaith dialogue was 'not possible in the strict sense of the word' placed in doubt his committment to dialogue with the two other monotheistic faiths. The Vatican said the Pope had been misinterpreted.

The Vatican cardinal in charge of inter-faith dialogue has thanked Muslims for helping to combat the growing secularisation of Western society by "bringing God back into the public sphere" in Europe. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said religion was now talked and written about more than ever before "thanks to the Muslims".

In remarks to a theological conference in Naples reported by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Cardinal Tauran said "Muslims, having become a significant minority in Europe, were the ones who demanded space for God in society." However no society had only one faith.

"We live in multicultural and multireligious societies, that's obvious," he said. 'There is no civilisation that is religiously pure. Every religion has its own identity, but God is at work in all, in the souls of those who search for him sincerely".