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VATICAN CITY — The Vatican sought Wednesday to quell its latest public dispute with Jewish groups, saying the pope’s decision to move Pope Pius XII closer to sainthood isn’t an act of hostility against those who say he failed to sufficiently denounce the Holocaust.
In what has now become a routine effort at fence-mending, the Vatican issued a statement saying the German-born Benedict feels great respect for and friendship toward Jews — a sentiment he hopes to reinforce during his first visit to Rome’s synagogue next month.
Benedict sparked renewed outrage among some Jewish groups on Saturday by signing a decree on Pius’ heroic virtues, paving the way for him to be beatified once a miracle attributed to his intercession is confirmed.
Some Jews and historians have argued Pius, pope from 1939-1958, should have done more to prevent the deaths of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.
The Vatican insists Pius used quiet diplomacy to try to save Jews and that speaking out more forcefully would have resulted in more deaths.
Jewish groups have denounced the decision, noting that they had previously asked Benedict to suspend his cause until the Vatican archives on Pius’ pontificate are opened to outside scholars. The Vatican has said those archives won’t be catalogued and ready until 2014 at the earliest.
In its statement Wednesday, the Vatican confirmed that timeframe and said Benedict’s decision wasn’t intended to limit discussion on Pius’ decisions.
But it repeated that as far as it was concerned, Pius showed great “attention and preoccupation” over the fate of Jews, “which is widely established and recognized even by many Jews.”
It added that the decree on his “heroic virtues” wasn’t so much a historical assessment of his pontificate as a confirmation that he had led a deeply Christian life.
“It’s clear that the recent signature of the decree shouldn’t in any way be seen as a hostile act against the Jewish people and one hopes that it isn’t taken as an obstacle to the path of dialogue between Judaism and the Catholic Church,” the statement said.
Yet the decision was the latest in a series of perceived affronts that have roiled Catholic-Jewish relations in recent years.
It followed on the heels of Benedict’s rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop in January, what some say was a missed opportunity during his visit to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in May and his 2007 decision to revive the old Latin Mass, which includes a prayer for the conversion of Jews.
Read more at: google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNcgpqJnEkTpngxgU5aPhZ_we2RwD9CP4O6G0In each of those cases, the Vatican responded to the ensuing criticism by issuing clarifications, explanations or apologies after the fact — including a remarkable papal admission that mistakes were made when Benedict lifted the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, who had said no Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers.
Zing.As Fr. John Zuhlsdorf said on his great blog, when Jews ask the Catholic Church about who they can call “Righteous Gentiles,” and when they ask for Christian churches to approve the prayers they say, then they can complain about acts the Catholic Church does concerning her own members.
There appears to be a problem with how Rome gave help to the Ustase officials who fled Croatia after WWII.