Pope Benedict XVI has held a papal audience for Gypsies. An estimated 2000 Roma, Sinti, Manouche, Kale, Yenish and Romanichais people attended the event at the Vatican.
They danced and sang for the pope while playing violins. Some told of ancestors killed in Nazi concentration camps and life today in squalid camps on city outskirts.
Pope Benedict urged them to turn over a new page, in what he called their painful history.
In his address, he defended their right to proper housing and schooling, saying that should constitute the basis of an integration that would benefit both them and society.
''Never again should your people be the object of vexation, rejection and contempt,'' he said.
But he added: ''On your part, always seek justice, legality, reconciliation and make an effort never to be the cause of other people's suffering.''
