by Sergio Itzhak Minerbi
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow in Poland, was elected Pope in 1978 and took the name John Paul II. To mark the new millennium, the Pope will visit Israel - the Holy
Land - in March 2000. During his long pontificate, the Pope has acquired a record of many speeches and declarations on the issue of Catholic-Jewish relations. No other pope has displayed such a strong interest in redefining those relations and trying to find a common ground between Catholicism and Judaism. But while some people have enthusiastically received the words of this pope as those of a great friend of the Jews, others have remained critical.
For centuries, the Church has claimed to be "verus Israel", the "true Israel", thus substituting the Jewish religion. It is therefore important that, in a meeting with the Jewish community in Mainz on 17 November 1980, the Pope announced his respect for "the people of God, of the Old Covenant, which has never been revoked by God."
On 22 March 1984, Pope John Paul II elaborated on this subject. "The respect we speak of is based on the mysterious spiritual link which brings us close together, in Abraham and through Abraham in God, who chose Israel and brought forth the Church from Israel." In the Notes on the correct way to present the Jews (24 June 1985), there is some further - albeit cautious - progress on Catholic-Jewish relations. The document states that: "An exclusively negative picture of the Pharisees is likely to be inaccurate and unjust". This is evidently a positive statement after centuries of sharp criticism against Pharisees. However, the Notes also states that: "Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation." A similar idea was included in the new Catechism published in English in 1995, repeating the old doctrine: "Outside the Church there is no salvation."
Deicide and Anti-Semitism
The beginning of the change in the Catholic doctrine about the Jews, defined as "the teaching of contempt", is generally attributed to Vatican II, and the declaration Nostra Aetate of 1965. In this declaration, it was admitted for the first time, that "What happened in His passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today." The Declaration decried "hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time by anyone", and repudiated "all forms of anti-Semitism and discrimination".
Contrary to what was written by some authors, the declaration Nostra Aetate did not accord an acquittal to the Jews of the crime of deicide, it only limited the accusation to those Jews of the time of Jesus who allegedly took part in the deicide. In 1974, the Church published the Guidelines, in which it condemned anti-Semitism again. In the Notes of 1985, it wrote that, "Christian sinners are more to blame for the death of Christ than those few Jews who brought it about." Again, in the new Catechism of 1995 it was stated that, "Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death."
On 6 September 1990, in Prague, Cardinal Edward Cassidy said, "The fact that anti-Semitism has found place in the Christian conscience and practice requires an act of teshuva and reconciliation," and he defined anti-Semitism as "a sin against God and humanity". However, in some Catholic publications the Hebrew word teshuva, meaning repentance, is given a very different meaning: conversion. Although it is clear that Cardinal Cassidy used this word in its original meaning, the problem of different interpretations remains.
Another example of this problem is the Church's use of the word "reconciliation" when referring to its relationship with the Jews. There are differences of opinion as to whether "reconciliation" is used in the sense of a renewal of friendship after estrangement, or in the sense of St. Paul, who wrote that "the two" - Jews and Pagans - should become "one new man from the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross" (Ephesians 2:15-16). In other words, reconciliation could be interpreted to mean conversion to Christianity as well.
In November 1988, the report Church and Racism stated that anti-Semitism had not yet disappeared, terrorist acts against Jews had multiplied and anti-Zionism served as "a screen for anti-Semitism." Anti-Semitism was also condemned in the Fundamental Treaty between the Holy See and Israel in 1993.
The Kidnapping of the Shoah
The main criticism against Pope John Paul II is his constant effort to Christianize the Shoah (Holocaust). When the Pope was still Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow in Poland, he took the initiative of beatifying Maximilien Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who had been killed in Auschwitz. On this occasion, Archbishop Wojtyla made a speech on Vatican Radio (20th October 1971):
"The Church of Poland sees the necessity of a place of sacrifice, an altar and a sanctuary, precisely in Auschwitz. This is even more necessary after the beatification of Father Maximilien. We are all convinced that in this place of his heroic immolation, a church should be erected, in the same way that since the first centuries of Christianity, churches were built on the tombs of martyrs, beatified people and saints."
In the same speech, Archbishop Wojtyla spoke of traversing "the Golgotha of Auschwitz camp". He repeated the idea of the comparison of Auschwitz to Golgotha, the hill in Jerusalem on which Jesus was crucified, when he visited Auschwitz as Pope on 7 June 1979. On that occasion, he spoke about Auschwitz as "the Golgotha of the modern world", thus making a parallel of the Jews slaughtered in Auschwitz to Jesus being killed on Golgotha, both for the holy purpose of creating a new religion, Christianity.
At the same time, the Pope recalled that "six million people - a quarter of the Polish nation" were killed during the Holocaust. The appropriation by the Church of Jewish symbols, in this case the six million Jewish victims, goes back many centuries. The Pope's effort to Christianize the Shoah is obvious, but his motivations remain unclear. It is possible that in his ethnocentrist vision, the Pope wanted to transform the Shoah into a martyrdom of the Catholic Polish nation. As a result, it is feared that the Church will teach Catholics in future generations that the Shoah was mainly a Catholic tragedy, or at the very least, that this is a way to avoid any responsibility for the Shoah, since the Church itself was a "victim" of the Nazis.
Edith Stein
While the Jewish-Catholic dialogue was already taking place, the Church had been preparing, for almost twenty years and in great secrecy, for the beatification of Edith Stein. Born to a Jewish family, Stein converted to Catholicism and became a nun. Nevertheless, she was deported to Auschwitz because of her Jewish origin, where she was murdered on the 9th of August 1944. On the day of her beatification (1 May 1987), Pope John Paul II read an homily in Köln, Germany, in which he declared that Edith Stein was like "Esther, who with the sacrifice of her own life, contributed in a decisive way to the salvation of her people". It is evident that the only salvation the Pope could possibly have been referring to was a spiritual one, that of showing the way to conversion.
Moreover, it is ironic that the Pope added, "She died as a daughter of Israel 'for the glorification of the holy name of God' and at the same time as Nun Teresa Benedicta of the Cross." The phrase "for the glorification of the holy name of God" is actually a translation of the Hebrew al kiddush Hashem, which has for centuries been used to describe the murder of Jews who refused to renounce their Jewish faith.
After Edith Stein's canonization on 11 October 1998, the date of her death (9 August) became "Holocaust Day" for the Catholic Church. Thus a woman who converted from Judaism to Catholicism is deemed to be the model to which all Jews should comply.
The project to erect a church at Auschwitz, announced at the time of the beatification of Kolbe, was realized in 1984 when a Carmelite monastery was established in the so-called "theater": the storage place of the poisonous gas Zyklon B, used in the camp's gas chambers. Only after years of discussions with Jewish organizations was the monastery at last relocated a few hundred yards away from its original place. More recently, in 1999, hundreds of crosses were planted near the previous site of the monastery; again there were lengthy discussions, and in May 1999, the President of Poland, Alexander Kwasniewski, signed a bill establishing protective zones around Auschwitz. The small crosses were removed, but an enormous cross, seven and a half meters high, remains on the spot.
The will of the Pope and the Polish Church to stress the Christian character of the Holocaust is clear. In every former death camp there is today a chapel, a church or a cross, even if all the inmates had been Jews. This is in addition to a constant policy of "de-Judaization" of the death camps by the Polish communist Governments, as pointed out by Gerhart M. Riegner in his book, Ne Jamais désesper.
A Reflection on the Shoah
For more than ten years, Jewish organizations active in the dialogue with the Church asked for a document on the Shoah. In a statement of 31 October 1997, the Pope said: "In the Christian world - I do not say on the part of the Church as such - erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and their alleged culpability have circulated for too long, engendering feelings of hostility towards this people" and which "contributed to the numbing of conscience" of the "disciple of Christ".
This is a claim that the Church is innocent, while for 2000 years it spread the "teaching of contempt". Jews were supposed to be punished with eternal exile for their "blindness" at not recognizing Jesus, as well as for their "crime", namely the killing of Jesus. The Church seems paradoxically to hold its own believers responsible for being "hostile" towards the Jews, while they were merely following teachings of the same Church.
On 16 March 1998, a document entitled "A Reflection on the Shoah" was published. This document includes many conciliatory paragraphs, but it is still considered to be far from being satisfactory. Most interesting is the Pope's letter attached to the main document, in which he admits that the Shoah "remains an indelible stain on the history of the century that is coming to a close". However the Church still seems to be shifting all the blame for what happened during the Second World War onto the shoulders of the Christians of that time, who should have raised their voices and opposed the Nazis, even though their "Pontifex Maximus" Pius XII said nothing.
Hitler, a Catholic all his life, was influenced by the Church's doctrine. However, this is flatly denied by the March 1998 document, which states: "The Shoah was the work of a thoroughly modern, neo-pagan regime. Its anti-Semitism had its roots outside of Christianity." The document only admits that Nazi persecutions "were made easier by the anti-Jewish prejudice imbedded in some Christian minds and hearts". Thus those who hoped that the Church would recognize its responsibility for the spreading of anti-Semitic hatred remained disillusioned. Moreover, although the Pope had condemned anti-Semitism several times, in this document he maintains that according to the Church, the anti-Semitism it exhibits is merely "anti-Judaism", while the anti-Semitism under discussion is typical of "neo-pagans" only. The Pope's expressions of condemnation are meant towards others - the Pagans - not towards the Church itself.
Pius XII
In the same document ("A Reflection on the Shoah"), there is a strong defense of Pope
Pius XII, a candidate for beatification, notwithstanding the fact that his conduct, and especially his silence, in front of Nazi persecutions are a matter of fierce debate.
Under Pope Pius XII, during the Second World War, the Church did take some covert actions to save Jews. However, this was limited to what the Church deemed feasible given the circumstances. No public statement against the Nazi policies was ever pronounced by Pius XII while there was still time to influence them. The Church claims that the Pope could have made the situation worse for the victims themselves by issuing declarations. One wonders how much worse their situation could have been than death in the gas chambers.
It is unclear why Pius XII chose to remain silent while he knew, already in 1940, that Nazis were killing Jews systematically in Poland and elsewhere. Perhaps it was due to the Pope's fear of provoking a schism within the Catholic Church in Germany. In addition, he may have considered Bolshevism to be the major danger to Christianity, thus regarding Nazism as the lesser of two evils. Another reason could be that he wanted to remain absolutely neutral in order to preserve the possibility of becoming a mediator during or after the war. Whatever his reasons, it is clear that when he had to chose between the moral duty of denouncing genocide in order to save Jewish lives, and what he deemed to be the supreme interest of the Church, he preferred the latter.
This debate over the conduct of Pius XII has lately become more pertinent since the Church has recently decided to propose him for beatification, an act that is felt by many Jews and Catholics alike to be most objectionable. Moreover, Pope John Paul II has lost no opportunity to defend the memory of Pius XII on various occasions, especially in front of Jewish audiences.
The controversial 1998 document also tries to establish a symmetry between anti-Judaism and "anti-Christian sentiment among Jews". This sentiment never existed. For centuries, the Catholic Church denigrated the Jews, and claimed that their mission was exhausted and that they had been replaced by the new "people of God", the Church itself. Catholic leaders enclosed the Jews in ghettos, imposed upon them a special sign, burnt their holy books in the streets, and accused the Jews of ritual murder. The Jews were obliged to listen to Christian sermons in the Church and in some cases they were forcibly converted. On the side of the Jews, however, no persecution of Christians was ever carried out; nor could it have been, given the inferior social and economic position in which Jews were kept.
Notwithstanding these issues, the document of March 1998 does contain some positive points. It stresses that the Shoah was a major event of our century, thus rebuking those who seek to negate it altogether. It also adds, "The victims from their graves, the survivors through the vivid testimony of what they have suffered, have become a loud voice calling the attention of all of humanity... the spoiled seeds of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism must never again be allowed to take root in any human heart."
Some previous declarations of national synods were even stronger. An example of this is found in the declaration of German Bishops of 23 January 1995, which stated that, "The holy Church has sinned and must repent." Similarly, the Declaration of Nancy of the French Bishops of 30 September 1997 claimed, "Too many shepherds of the Church offended the Church itself and its mission with their silence. Today we confess that this silence was an error." It is clear that inside the Church, there are many Bishops who are ripe for a further step towards reconciliation.
The Visit to the Synagogue of Rome
Pope John Paul II took an historic step when he visited the Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986. During his visit, the Pope said, "Jews and Christians are the trustees and witnesses of an ethic marked by the Ten Commandments in the observance of which man finds his truth and freedom." He added, "With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers".
While the Pope's words were highly praised, one cannot help but wonder whether he was indirectly referring to the words of Paul. In Romans 9: 12-13, we find that "Rebecca was told, 'The older [brother] will serve the younger.' Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" The interpretation of the Biblical story of Esau and Jacob, in the sense that the younger brother takes over the heritage of the elder, has been widely spread by the Church for many generations.
The State of Israel
The first reference to the State of Israel in a religious Catholic document appeared in the Notes of 1985. "The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles on international law." This new approach allowed for further developments between the Church and the State of Israel, which were a direct consequence of the peace process between Israel and the Arab States, initiated at the Madrid Conference of October 1991. The Holy See signed a Fundamental Treaty with Israel on 30 December 1993, after the Declaration of Principles was signed by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on 13 September 1993.
In October 1998, Msgr. Jean-Louis Tauran, Secretary for Relations with States, came to Jerusalem to explain the stand of the Holy See with regards to the status of Jerusalem. While the Holy See considered this issue to be part of the multilateral talks, Msgr. Tauran said that the Holy See favored a "special internationally-guaranteed statute" and rejected "the forcible occupation by one of the parties of an area of the city of Jerusalem". He also criticized Israel for its "lack of respect for certain UN Security Council Resolutions," and "the annexation by force of a part of the city of Jerusalem". It is obvious that on the question of Jerusalem the position of the Holy See and that of Israel are quite disparate. This was stressed by the agreement between the Holy See and the PLO signed on 15 February 2000. Without actually mentioning Israel by name, the agreement states that "unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable."
Haider
In February 2000, Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party was invited to take part in the Austrian Government, notwithstanding the severe criticism of the European Union and other nations worldwide. Israel decided to recall its Ambassador in Vienna immediately. Among the very few who expressed a different view was Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State of the Holy See, who said (3 February 2000), "The Holy See's great tradition is very realistic - one should never be premature. Our tradition is never to judge people, but to judge what happens on the basis of moral doctrine. If anything happens that is contrary to that, the Roman Pontiffs have always known, in 2000 years of history, how to speak out. But it is important not to rush things."
The fact that Pius XII did not "speak out" on moral grounds during the Shoah makes this position of the Holy See problematic. Furthermore, its stand regarding Haider is not completely surprising, since Pope John Paul II himself had granted Kurt Waldheim an audience in Rome on 27 June 1987. Waldheim was then the President of Austria - elected after concealing his wartime past to become Secretary General of the United Nations - after it was known that he had been a soldier in a German unit in the Balkans during the Second World War. Waldheim was guilty, "morally if not legally", since he was in the area when war crimes were carried out and did not protest. A second meeting between John Paul II and Waldheim took place in June 1988, during a five-day visit to Austria.
Of greater concern is the case of Msgr. Alojzjie Viktor Stepinac, who was Archbishop of Zagreb and Primate of Croatia, during the pro-Nazi Ustashe dictatorship of Ante Pavelic. Pavelic had committed terrible war crimes, and Stepinac is considered to be a very controversial figure, since many historical documents prove that he supported Pavelic. Despite requests by the "Simon Wiesenthal Center" to suspend the beatification until an accurate research into Stepinac could be made, John Paul II beatified Msgr. Alojzjie Viktor Stepinac on 3 October 1998.
Forgiveness
On 8 March 2000, the Pope is to repent for past errors on a special day dedicated to a "Request for Forgiveness" during millennium celebrations. It is probable that the future declaration will also include some references to the Church's relationship with the Jews. If this is the case, a further step may be taken to close the gap between Catholics and Jews, and to better the relations between them. Using the words of John Paul II (28 October 1985), it is hoped that " a positive view of each of our religions, with due respect for the identity of each, will surely emerge".