A sampling of reaction to the pope's synagogue visit [John Allen]

[Catholic_Press]

Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI visited the Great Synagogue of Rome, marking only the second time that a pope has crossed the Tiber River to enter the primary Jewish place of worship in Rome. The event offered a strong signal of commitment to Jewish/Christian dialogue, but also a reminder of the tensions in the relationship – including, most recently, possible sainthood for Pope Pius XII, the wartime pontiff whose alleged “silence” on the Holocaust remains the object of fierce historical debate.

*The visit sparked a variety of reactions, ranging from traditionalist Catholics who celebrated a “Mass of reparation” to atone for what they called the “insult” of the pope’s synagogue visit, to prominent rabbis who hailed the pope’s commitment to dialogue and to fighting anti-Semitism.

• *The following is a sampling of commentary on the day after Benedict’s visit to the synagogue – the third time Benedict has met Jews on their own turf, so to speak, after trips to the Cologne Synagogue in 2005 and the Park East Synagogue in New York in April 2008.

Rabbi Alfonso Arbib, Chief Rabbi of Milan

More…

 

[JReducation]

This was a necessary visit to begin some healing that needs to take place. You can’t evangelize when people are hurt. Hopefully more people, Catholic and Jews, will want to understand what the beatification and canonization of Pius XII and other saints is really about. Too many people expect the canonization process to factor in temporal roles and accomplishments. That’s not the case.

By visiting the synagogue the Holy Father signaled to Catholics and Jews how we should deal with each other as brothers, even when we don’t understand each other. Brotherhood is the beginning.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[StrawberryJam]

I’m wondering about the accuracy of the comment that was made about Polish people.

In the end, I am left scratching my head about the schismatic catholic community.

 

[JReducation]

I’m wondering about the accuracy of the comment that was made about Polish people.

In the end, I am left scratching my head about the schismatic catholic community.

I believe that the Poles were as much victims as were the German people. It’s a little hard not to be intimidated by guns. Many people did what they did to save their lives and that of their families, not because they wanted to see the Jews exterminated.

As to the priest who celebrated the reparatoin mass, . . . well that’s just another person who may be too fragile. Sometimes, people of any faith, can be very fragile. By that I mean that they see threats everywhere. They don’t always mean harm. Unofrtunately, their actions can do harm. Catholicism is not the only religion with its share of very fragile and easily threatened members. Aren’t these same fragile people at the core of the Jewish and Islamic problems with the rest of the world?

When human beings allow themselves to be guided by their fears they inadvertently become their own victims.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[StrawberryJam]

I believe that the Poles were as much victims as were the German people. It’s a little hard not to be intimidated by guns. Many people did what they did to save their lives and that of their families, not because they wanted to see the Jews exterminated.

As to the priest who celebrated the reparatoin mass, . . . well that’s just another person who may be too fragile. Sometimes, people of any faith, can be very fragile. By that I mean that they see threats everywhere. They don’t always mean harm. Unofrtunately, their actions can do harm. Catholicism is not the only religion with its share of very fragile and easily threatened members. Aren’t these same fragile people at the core of the Jewish and Islamic problems with the rest of the world?

When human beings allow themselves to be guided by their fears they inadvertently become their own victims.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

I would agree with that Br. JR, OSF

I would.

Thank you for that insight.

 

[gus]

I find the remarks on Poland appalling
Poland a country of 24million people prior to WII suffered and estimated 6.5 milion civilian
Deaths in WWII
2.5Million were Jews
That means 4 million non-Jewish Polish people we killed
The overwhelming majority being Catholic.

 

[PAboy57]

It’s hard to love everyone, but I think that is what we should be trying to do. I personally feel good that the Pope is visiting our neighbors. If people hate us it sure is hard to talk to them.

Brother, thank you for your thoughts.

 

[redrosetea]

This was a necessary visit to begin some healing that needs to take place. You can’t evangelize when people are hurt. Hopefully more people, Catholic and Jews, will want to understand what the beatification and canonization of Pius XII and other saints is really about. Too many people expect the canonization process to factor in temporal roles and accomplishments. That’s not the case.

By visiting the synagogue the Holy Father signaled to Catholics and Jews how we should deal with each other as brothers, even when we don’t understand each other. Brotherhood is the beginning.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

They may have the first miracle for Pope Pius…so it is good to help them understand how our process works…If they won’t accept it, there is not much we can do, but I think that some good will come of this

 

[KyivAndrew]

I find the remarks on Poland appalling
Poland a country of 24million people prior to WII suffered and estimated 6.5 milion civilian
Deaths in WWII
2.5Million were Jews
That means 4 million non-Jewish Polish people we killed
The overwhelming majority being Catholic.

Yes, that was the quote from the President of the Jewish Community in Rome that there were more Polish accomplices than victims of Nazi murder. I find that type of language of point-blank condemnation of a whole Nation (i.e. “The Poles were.” etc…on the same level as the “the Jews were”…) as false and the result of not attempting to realize what other nations might have endured from Nazism and Communism from that time. One historian-specialist on this area Norman Davies wrote a fascinating book which deals with this subject of the unique circumstances of living in an area stuck between the two hells of communism and nazism during WW2 (Poland, Eastern Europe) and how this situation might not be understandable in the West. The Katyn film would be helpful for Poles if it was distributed more as a foreign film. I can’t agree with everything Norman Davies writes in the book, but he does help to elucidate the moral quagmires the populations of Eastern Europe were to find themselves between Hitler and Stalin - a subject given too little attention in history. normandavies.com/europe-at-war.html

But O.K. the meeting happened. Good. Education of one another is good, and hopefully in the end helps banish stereotypes.

God Bless.

 

[Darryl1958]

Listening to the internet lectures by Rabbi Forhman, recently, I am convinced that Judaism has much to offer our Catholic faith. He has wonderful discussions on the Old Testament. For a Catholic for example, it wold be striking to note how Moses’s sister Miriam is a type for Mary, how Miriam’s well is a type for Jesus first miracle of wine at Cana, and how in effect Jesus redeemed Moses mistake that disallowed him form entering the promised land of the Canaanites.

Jesus is an icon of the God of the Jews.God and Jesus are one. Fidelity to one is fidelity to the other.

If it it is true that we have been grafted into the stump of Jesse, then Judah is as much our brother as he is Joseph’s.
We share the same ancestors. We are of the same family, dysfunctional though it may be.

 

[Beachcomber]

You know, I’m glad that the Holy Father went to the synagogue. There was a lot of ‘baggage,’ so to speak that came with him when he was elected pope–he was German, rumors about him being involved with Nazis, ect. This is a good thing that he went and began to establish a dialog.

 

[KC91]

From a PR perspective this visit is neccesary after the bad coverage from last year

 

[JReducation]

This visit is necessary not only for the benefit of the Jewish people, but also for the benefit of the Catholic people. Too many of our own people are very ignorant on Judaism. They narrow down Judaism to one single fact, “Jews don’t accept Jesus as Messiah.” The situation is much more complicated than that. There is an entire history and theology that has to be undestood by Catholics. You can speak to someone, if you do not speak their language. I believe this is what made thsi visit so beneficial for the Jewish people. They understood the language that the Holy Father was using. Those who heard him responded positively.

We Catholics have to learn to use that kind of language. For some strange reason the Catholic laity seems reluctant to speak to the Jewish people from their own language, when in fact it is the language that both sides have in common. As the Holy Father said, there is much more to be discussed, but we must begin at the very basic, that is our common faith in the one God of Israel, our Abrahamic lineage and the Commandments. We also need to speak about those things that are of common interest and needs to both groups: family life, peace, justice, mutual respect.

I’m not sure if I posted it on this thread or someplace else, but there was a very famous Jewish Rabbi, whose name I can never spell, Rabbi Klanecki. He’s was an Amercian. He died about two years ago. He was one of the most prominent Catholic Theologians on Carmelite Mysticisn and Theology. He taught theology at several Pontifical Universities and seminaries, including Rome. He was so good that Pope Benedict dispensed with the rule that only Catholics could be called Catholic Theologians or be admimtted to the Order of St. Gregory the Great, which is a very prestigious Catholic Theological society in the Vatican.

This would have been impossible if the people involved on both sides, Jewish and Catholic, has been unwilling to admit that a Jewish theologian could be a a scholar on Catholic theology. Not only was he a scholar, but one of the best in the world. On the Jewish side, they had to yield too. They had to accept that a Jewish scholar could speak about Christ and mysticism as an academician without comprimising his beliefs or the Jewish community.

These small steps are very important. Here is a case where the presedent has been set. A Jewish scholar can be a Catholic theologian, without being Catholic. The Jewish faith is not threatened or minimized by this. The Catholic faith is not either. Both sides are enriched by the bridge that is built by one man’s courage to try.

I believe this is the example that Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II and some rabbis are trying to give. Someone has to have the courage to try to talk to the other side, even if the talk begins with simple things on which we all agree.

Father Corapi said something interesting the other day. He said that you cannot convert anyone by preaching at them. You convert by your life. I thought it was very interesting, because St. Francis wrote for the brothers that they were not to go to the Saracens again, unless they were prepared to teach by their lives, rather than their words. He realized the futility of words after his trip. But he also realized the power of example.

I see this visit as being more beneficial to Catholics than to Jews. The example is really for us. This is how we are to approach the Jewish people.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[josephdavid]

I love to see our Holy Father lead by example, especially in regards to respect towards other people, cultures, and religions.

I hope and truly pray that Christians through out the world follow our Holy Father’s example, instead of demonizing other’s who are not Christian.

 

[redrosetea]

Let us not forget Franz Werfel who wrote a masterpiece about Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernadette

It was the most beautiful book about the shrine and the apparition I have ever read

He, along with his wife, was hidden in the shrine while running away from the Nazis

He said if they escaped alive he would sing her song for the world to hear…and he did

 

[Crumpy]

I say the more dialogue, the better. They spoke about each other in brotherly terms, and that’s a good context.

I know it’s a dynamite subject, but why is the Pope singled out, for over half a century, as the only one who supposedly didn’t do enough to save Jews?

I have a book on the Holocaust, and it criticizes him for going along with the Germans. I don’t see the historical basis for that criticism. The only thing possibly good about the criticism, is that it reflects a high expectation of the Pope, which is a good thing to have.

But, I don’t understand what more Pius XII could have done. I think the charge is way overdone, that perhaps he could have saved millions and millions of people.

For this matter, how much backlash is there towards the Lutheran Church in Germany? Wouldn’t they have an equal obligation to have stopped Hitler?

It seems that there is some basic, essential, fundamental anti-Catholicism going on here.

It took the Allies (U.S., England, Canada, Australia, etc.) years to win that war, with all the force that they applied.

I think it is faceetious to say that the pope could have done “more.” More what?

 

[JReducation]

I say the more dialogue, the better. They spoke about each other in brotherly terms, and that’s a good context.

I know it’s a dynamite subject, but why is the Pope singled out, for over half a century, as the only one who supposedly didn’t do enough to save Jews?

I have a book on the Holocaust, and it criticizes him for going along with the Germans. I don’t see the historical basis for that criticism. The only thing possibly good about the criticism, is that it reflects a high expectation of the Pope, which is a good thing to have.

But, I don’t understand what more Pius XII could have done. I think the charge is way overdone, that perhaps he could have saved millions and millions of people.

For this matter, how much backlash is there towards the Lutheran Church in Germany? Wouldn’t they have an equal obligation to have stopped Hitler?

It seems that there is some basic, essential, fundamental anti-Catholicism going on here.

It took the Allies (U.S., England, Canada, Australia, etc.) years to win that war, with all the force that they applied.

I think it is faceetious to say that the pope could have done “more.” More what?

This position is not really anti-Catholic. It comes from a misunderstanding of the power of the papacy. The Lutherans, for example, are not held to the same standards, because they do not have a centralized leadership.

The Pope was held to a higher standard, because of a misconception that many non Catholics had. Many non Catholics truly believed that if the Pope said “Jump” every Catholic in the world would do so. How did they arrive at that?

They arrived at that because the Catholic laity has been playing both sides on the issue of the papacy for centuries. On the one hand, you have the Catholic laity speaking about its allegience to the pope. On the other hand, since the time of Peter, the laity has been in a constant power struggle with the papacy.

The Jews are not the first people to mistaking overestimate the Catholic laity’s fidelity and obedience to the papacy. They assumed that if the papacy said that all Catholics must go out and confront the Nazis, that Catholics would do so out of obedience. In other words, they truly believed that we are that faithful and that submissive to the papacy.

They are not the only ones. There is a letter that is now famous, but was once a great secret, written by George Washington. I can’t recall to whom he wrote it. In his letter he warns his reader to be vigilant, because the Papists are not to be trusted since the Vatican did not recognize the new Republic. It took men like James Carrol and his cousin Bishop John Carrol to dispel the early Federalists of the idea that the Catholics were not patriots and that they could be Catholic and patriotic.

The same is held to be true in countries like Saudi Arabia. Catholics are not trusted. They believe that if the Pope says “Jump” every Catholic will do so.

When Pope Pius XII, who knew better, did not order Catholics into the streets to fight the Nazis, many people, not just Jews, were disappointed. But the disappointment is rooted in a misunderstanding of Catholic fidelity to the papacy. We Catholics are as much to blame for that misunderstanding as they are.

All that we have to do is look arond today in our own country. How many times have the popes spoken out on abortion and contraception? How many Catholics in this country believe that separation of Church and State means that the Church cannot dictate to Catholics what is moral and immoral law? We don’t have that level of fidelity that we often present to the outside world. This confuses the expectations of others. It probably frustrates them too, because they’re not sure where Catholics stand. They only know what they read in the papers.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF