Jewish Vicarious Expiation is "Astonishing"

In his remarks on the end of the Temple, Pope Benedict XVI says that the idea that the blood of bulls offered in the Temple touches God and thereby presents and purifies humanity is "an astonishing idea both in its grandeur and its incompleteness, an idea that could not remain the last word in the history of religions or the last word in the faith history of Israel." Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two p. 39

The idea that sacrificing animals and their blood can somehow make things right between a sinner and God is sheer superstition except in its fulfillment in the Suffering Servant, foretold by the prophets: the death and life giving Redemption of the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the true Lamb, Who takes away our sins.