by Seymour D. Reich
Seymour Reich is chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations. He has served as President of B'nai B'rith International and as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
The coming visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel represents the latest in a series of breathtaking changes that have marked Catholic-Jewish relations since the mid-60s. Make no mistake; the visit of the Pontiff is symbolic not only of the new relationship between the Vatican and Israel, but of the epochal reversal in the Church's attitude toward Jews and Judaism. The steady progress in the course first set by Pope John XXIII is now beyond what even that remarkable visionary might have imagined.
What Pope John Paul II will find is a Jerusalem that is a unified city, free of the ugly barbed wire that once divided Jews and Arabs - an open city with Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy places that have been refurbished at Israel's expense and made accessible to all. He will also find an atmosphere of determined effort on the part of Israel's government to achieve a peaceful and permanent resolution to the problems that have plagued that part of the world for more than a century.
In such a context, some critics claim that relations between the Holy See and the Jewish people are of little significance in determining the course of geopolitical issues in the Middle East. But that is not true. Any pope - and particularly John Paul II - is in a unique position to serve as an eloquent conscience of a civilized society and a powerful force for peace. In the case of the Jewish people, who have suffered so severely from the anti-Semitism promoted by church teachings in the past, the sea-change in the Vatican's views and policies toward Judaism and Jews cannot help but influence the beliefs and behavior of untold millions of Catholics, and even non-Catholics, in a way that can help alter the tide of human history.
The Pope's decision to visit Israel was not made on the spur of the moment or as a hasty response to immediate circumstances. It comes as a milestone in a 35-year progression of dialogue and a developing Vatican-Jewish relationship in which Israel's role as the focus of Jewish life and concerns has gradually been accepted by the Church.
Catholic-Jewish relations have come a long way in three decades. The era of good feeling may be said to have officially started in 1965, when the Second Vatican Council, under Pope John XXIII, issued its landmark Nostra Aetate decree, which repudiated the concept of Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and called for mutual respect and discussion. The issue of the Church's attitude toward Israel, however, was an old problem that was to remain one of the discordant notes in the newly harmonious relationship.
The long-time refusal of the Holy See to accept Israel is believed to have strong theological roots as well as political considerations. Long before Nostra Aetate and the inspired Church leadership of Pope John XXIII, the problem of a Jewish state became an obstacle to Vatican-Jewish relations. In fact, the first encounter between a Pope and a Zionist leader took place as early as 1904, when the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, explained the principles and purposes of his new movement to Pius X. The Pontiff said he opposed the return of the Jews to Palestine on theological grounds, stating: "Jews have not recognized our Lord; we cannot recognize the Jewish people."
Actually, several of the popes who followed Pius X declared their understanding and even sympathy for the humanitarian goals of Zionism but continued to insist that they would only support the Jews' return to the Holy Land if they agreed to convert to Catholicism.
Some observers attribute the theological litmus test for acceptance of Israel to political pressure within the Vatican by ultra-conservatives whose principal goal was to perpetuate the literal orthodoxy of Catholic doctrine. But it also appears that there was concern within the Church on maintaining relations with the Arab world in order to protect the safety and property of Christians in the Middle East. More recently, however, Catholic officials have claimed that the issue of diplomatic relations with Israel was a political matter and that the Holy See has no theological objections to relations with the Jewish state. Nevertheless, even as the Vatican began to denounce anti-Semitism and indicated a desire to institute an interfaith dialogue with representatives of world Jewry, the word "Israel" was never mentioned. In 1987, when the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra gave a performance in the presence of the Pope, the Vatican's newspaper reported that "a group of Jewish refugee musicians" had played for the Pontiff.
Two years after the landmark Nostra Aetate, formal dialogue was opened between the Vatican and world Jewry with the organization of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), an umbrella group whose membership today includes the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith International, the Israel Jewish Council on Interreligious Relations, the World Jewish Congress and representative bodies of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jewry.
For some 32 years, IJCIC maintained an unprecedented dialogue with the Vatican's Commission on Religious Relations With the Jews. The dividends were enormous. Aside from the ability to communicate with each other, concrete steps were taken. In 1987, Vatican officials pledged to prepare a major document on the Church and the Holocaust, an increasingly sensitive issue for both sides. At the same time, some Church leaders began to acknowledge for the first time that anti-Semitic stereotypes had been influenced, in part, by theological and popular Christian teachings. In 1990, a high-level Jewish-Catholic conference in Prague issued a statement that called for Catholic repentance and stressed that anti-Semitism "is a sin against God and humanity." The Jewish and Catholic participants also joined together in calling for a halt to anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and agreed to create a kind of "early warning system" to avert Catholic-Jewish conflicts.
In addition, numerous personal statements and symbolic actions by Pope John Paul II have enhanced the new spirit of cooperation and acceptance initiated by John XXIII. In 1986, John Paul II prayed at Rome's main synagogue, the first recorded visit of a pope to a synagogue. In 1994, good will reached a new height with the Holy See's formal recognition of Israel and the establishment of full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. One of the most significant statements issued by John Paul II was a reaffirmation of the special parental relationship between Judaism and Christianity. He termed it "a relationship which could be called a real 'parentage' and which we have with the Jewish religious community alone, notwithstanding our many connections with other world religions ... This 'link' can be called a 'sacred' one."
But genuine relationships are rarely without occasional discord, especially on issues of genuine moment. In spite of the monumental strides on the road to normalization of Catholic-Jewish relations, the extended dialogue has encountered some stones along the way. For more than a decade, crosses placed at the Auschwitz death camp by right-wing Catholics outraged Jews, exacerbated tensions and angered moderate Catholic clergy and the Polish government, which demanded that the religious symbols be removed.
Pronouncements by the Vatican endorsing the internationalization of Jerusalem have also served as an irritant, although there are some signs that the Church's position may be changing. Jews have been additionally distressed by the canonization of Edith Stein, a Jewish woman who converted to Catholicism and became a nun, but nevertheless was murdered by the Nazis because of her Jewish origins. Her canonization as "a martyr for the Church," led critics to charge that the Vatican was attempting to "Christianize" the Holocaust.
But arguably the most contentious and emotional issue roiling Jewish-Catholic dialogue has stemmed from the refusal of the Vatican to open its World War II archives. The role played by Pope Pius XII, the wartime pontiff, became a cause celebre following the gripping stage drama "The Deputy", which was sharply critical of the pope's relations with Nazi Germany and his alleged failure to denounce the Holocaust. News that the Vatican was planning to name Pius XII as a candidate for sainthood exacerbated Jewish concerns. Jews know and have accepted the fact that the final decision in such matters is the Church's. But Jewish leaders have also felt justified in expressing anxiety and criticism if the canonization is based on the proposition that Pius XII saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives during the Shoah, while the Church fails to provide convincing corroboration.
In fact, Pius XII has been criticized by some Catholic historians as well as Jewish scholars for his apparent indifference to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust. His defenders have argued that while he did not speak out against the persecution of Jews for fear of enraging the Nazis and encouraging even worse horrors, he was instrumental in rescuing many of them before they were sent to the death camps. Either version of the Pius XII story may be accurate. Or it could be true that both are credible, inasmuch as complex institutions like the Vatican often house competing factions, each with its own policy agenda.
Instead of opening the archives, the Vatican released its long-awaited Holocaust report in March 1998. It was titled "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah." Jewish leaders generally reacted with disappointment to the document, contending that it did not go far enough and that its praise of Pius XII for saving "hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives" was contradicted by his refusal to invoke the moral authority of the Church to speak out against the Nazi genocide, as well as the absence of documentation of his role as a savior.
The decision of the Church not to open its wartime archives was further criticized in light of the announced determination by Switzerland and other nations and institutions to review and reassess their own roles in the Holocaust by examining long-buried records. Such policies contrasted sharply with the Vatican's insistence that it would follow its normal practice of keeping its records secret for 75 years. Some Jewish leaders asserted the policy was an attempt to hide what really happened during the Holocaust.
These stumbling blocks led to a breakdown in Catholic-Jewish dialogue in 1998. Such a breakdown was not a first; sixteen years earlier, in 1982, IJCIC suspended relations with the Vatican for half a year after the Pope received Yasir Arafat, then a terrorist leader. But both sides, well aware of the fundamental importance of their relationship, scheduled a high-level meeting during which the Arafat matter and ties with Israel were discussed frankly and fully. The dialogue was resumed.
The 1998 difficulties, like the Pope's meeting with Arafat, soon evolved into emotional contretemps, during which each side blamed the other for the breakdown in communications. Some Jewish leaders charged the Church with distorting the memory of the Holocaust and seeking to turn it into a Christian tragedy. Vatican representatives, on the other hand, accused certain Jewish groups of being negative and even hostile to papal efforts to improve the Catholic-Jewish relationship. As was true of the earlier suspension of dialogue, ultimate recognition that the basic goals of the long-term relationship were far more important than intemperate outbursts over particular issues again won the day. It led to an unusual but potentially profound response to the nagging dispute of the Vatican's "hidden" wartime archives.
In March 1998, representatives of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews met in Rome with Leaders of IJCIC. At that meeting, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican commission, suggested that a joint team of Catholic and Jewish scholars be designated to examine Catholic documents already published that related to the Church's role during World War II. The material in question consisted of 11 volumes of archival records that had been published between 1965 and 1981. A tentative agreement between representatives on both sides was reached. In October 1999, the arrangement was formally approved by IJCIC and the Vatican. A month later, six eminent scholars were appointed to the unprecedented study team, with the understanding that they would be able to draw on the knowledge and assistance of other specialists. At the conclusion of the study, they would issue a report that would also include questions and issues that could not be resolved with the available material. The three Jewish members designated by IJCIC were Professor Michael Marrus, dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto; Dr. Bernard Suchecky, a Belgian historian and Robert S. Wistrich, Professor of Modern European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Catholic scholars named by the Vatican were Dr. Eva Fleischner, Professor Emerita of Monclair State University in New Jersey, Reverend Professor Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J. of the University of Virginia, and Reverend Professor F. John Morley, a Holocaust scholar at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. The six include specialists in such areas as Church history, interfaith relations, the Holocaust, Nazism and the history of anti-Semitism.
Today, the Vatican continues to maintain its "closed archives" policy, but the members of IJCIC and other Jewish leaders have greeted the creation of a Catholic-Jewish scholars team as a useful "first step" in resolving the Vatican's role during the Holocaust. Moreover, for many in the Jewish community, the new momentum in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue can only be viewed as a restoration of the goodwill between the Church and the Jewish community that began with the prophetic foresight and historic words of Pope John XXIII.
The positive achievements of the past three decades speak for themselves. It is true that the ways of the Vatican are sometimes tortuous and almost always painstakingly deliberate. But these procedures are products of historical evolution and choice and are the sole province of the Church itself. Yet within such a framework, the record of progress in Catholic-Jewish relations has been remarkable. From a period in which the Vatican refused even to mention Israel, the church has now recognized the Jewish state and established full diplomatic relations. Moreover, with the creation of a joint team of Catholic and Jewish scholars, it has become a sponsor together, with the Jewish people, in an undertaking designed to help resolve the painful controversy over the Church's policies and actions during World War II.
The Pope's visit to Israel thus becomes a major symbol of Church policy as the world embarks on a new century. John Paul II has declared: "For the Jewish people who live in the State of Israel and who preserve in that land such precious testimonies to their history and faith, we must ask for the desired security and the due tranquility that is the prerogative of every nation and condition of life and of progress for every society."
In the continuing dialogue between the Church and world Jewry, differences are bound to arise from time to time. But given the most recent indications of Church intentions for the future, there is strong evidence that a new and strengthened partnership is about to be born.