Whew!
Now I don’t feel so bad about leaving Catholicism because
Alexander VI was such a horndog.
Actually, I thought Alexander earned the enmity of Spain specifically because of his tolerant policy towards the Jews. In fact, he promoted peace between Spain and Portugal, putting a rein on their fierce competition for empire by his line of demarcation. He even treated
Jewish refugees from Spain with kindness. And in Rome he made considerable improvements and did much for the university.
To be honest, I would have thought Pope Stephen VII would have been a better example.
In the autumn of 896, Pope Stephen VII had the body of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, exumed from the grave and dressed in pontifical vestements. Charge were then read against the corpse before his blessing fingers were cut off and the body thrown into the Tiber.
It is well know that Stephen was a very jealous opponent of Formosus and was certainly unbalanced. It came as no surprise to many that Stephen himself was to meet a violent fate, being thrown into prison and, in the end, was strangled by a Roman mob.
Certainly, if one of Jesus’ own apostle’s, hand selected by God himself, could fall away from Christ, it seems possible that Pope Stephen VII may have gone along the same path.
Even still, the Catholic understands that doctrine remains pure even if the people sin, including the Pope.
I think Luther was truly moved by God at first to reform the church from within. But as time went by, he became increasingly obstinant in his approach with the papacy.
In the end, Luther, for better or worse, started a religious movement that did officially conclude a very anti-semtic message within it’s own doctrine. And his words do easilly give support to those who are looking for reasons to hate Jews.
Hating people simply because they are Jewish is the very definition of antisemitism.
And pointing toward the attitudes of other people who held similar views during this era does not remove the burden of guilt from Luther. It only indicates that Luther was, in regards to the Jews anyways, essentially no better than the common people around him. There’s nothing flattering about his words. And at least one Lutheran body that I can think did in fact apologize for them.
More to the point, however, Christians are not justified before God for saying the things we sometimes do against Jews. In order to be truly Catholic, we need to ask someone for their forgiveness when we have wronged them-- not engage in polemics designed to shift the blame in light of obvious errors on our part.
http://www.notredamecenter.org/admin/imagenes_db/why_jerusalem/pope_at_wall_big.jpg
Pope John Paul II was the first pope to visit Israel since Saint Peter and actually say the name of the country. He was the first pope to apologize to the Jews for the centuries of persecution on the part of Christians. He was the first pope to step inside a synagogue, having gone to the main temple in Rome in 1985. He was the first pope to insist that Jews be called “our older brothers.” He was certainly the first pope to stand before the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and place a written prayer in one of the many ancient crevices, asking again for forgiveness and for the promotion of world brotherhood.
As a gesture it was spectacularly telegenic. In light of the sad history between Catholics and Jews, it was
truly unbelievable.
