A leading member of Germany's Jewish community said Monday that Benedict XVI, the German-born pope and leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide, was sowing divisions and abetting far-right groups by rehabilitating four ultra-conservative bishops, one of whom has denied the Holocaust. Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in an interview that because of the pope's nationality, Benedict had a special responsibility to avoid creating rifts between religious groups over the comments of the controversial bishop, Richard Williamson of Britain.
"The pope's decision is particularly disturbing in that he is also a German pope," Kramer said. "Yes, he made a statement pledging solidarity with the Jews. But, frankly, the statement was made nearly 13 days after Williamson's interview. Why? The question is how the pope wants to proceed from here in relations with the Jewish community."
The decision last month by Benedict, a prominent conservative theologian and philosopher who became pope in 2005, to reach out to the conservative bishops has jolted the Jewish community here, as well as liberal wings of the country's 26-million-strong Catholic Church.
Williamson told Swedish television last month that "I believe there were no gas chambers," adding that no more than 300,000 Jews died in the Nazi concentration camps, rather than 6 million. Public prosecutors have opened an investigation, because denial of the Holocaust is a crime in Germany. The Council of Jews in Germany immediately broke relations with the Vatican, ending, for the time being, a dialogue that had taken decades to nurture.
Kramer said the pope's decision to rehabilitate the men, particularly Williamson, was "quite shocking." It would, he said, give credence to views by some from the far right, and also some conservative Catholics, that the Holocaust did not exist or that its scale was exaggerated.
Kramer said he intended, along with the members from the Catholic Bishops' Conference, the highest church body here, to seek a meeting with Benedict "in order that he clarify" not only his decision on the renegade bishops but also what it means for Catholic-Jewish relations.
"Some Catholic groups may have wanted a break in the Jewish-Catholic dialogue," Kramer said. "By going to the Vatican together, we and our Catholic friends will prove them otherwise."
Benedict's move was aimed at unifying the Catholic Church, which has had theological schism since the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
Convened under Pope John XXIII, Vatican II, as the council is known, was an extraordinary development in Catholic doctrine, which until then had been rooted in traditionalism, an exclusivity and a particularly prejudiced view of Judaism.
The council had divided the Catholic Church between fundamentalist theologians - who wanted to retain the Latin mass and its rituals, but also its distance from other religions - and a more modern, liberal wing that yearned for an inquisitive church that would be was willing to become more ecumenical in its approach. That left aside the issues of birth control and liberation theology that were beginning to take hold in Latin America, which was then under harsh authoritarian regimes.
In the end, in a major shift, Vatican II renounced its traditional stance that all Jews, including living Jews, were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Kramer said Benedict's efforts to reunify a Catholic Church, divided over the acceptance of gay priests and whether women should be ordained, leaving aside the issues of contraception and abortion, would lead to even more divisions.
"He will lose secular Catholics," said Kramer, who as one of Germany's most prominent Jewish leaders has cultivated strong ties with Catholic groups.
Jews in Germany have already received support from more secular-minded Catholics and prominent bishops who have criticized the pope.
The German Conference of Catholic Bishops rejected Williamson's statement. Gerhard Ludwig Müller - the bishop of Regensburg, which is also the pope's home city - said Williamson would not be allowed inside his city's cathedral or any other church property.
And last Saturday, in mounting opposition to the pope's decision, Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, in southern Germany, issued a statement saying the Benedict's rehabilitation of the bishops was "totally unacceptable."
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(Source: RCN)