Jeremy Bowen, reporting on the Pope’s visit to Jordan, was kinder to Benedict XVI than the leading Catholic scholars in No Going Back, Letters to Pope Benedict XVI on the Holocaust, Jewish-Christian Relations and Israel.Published to coincide with the papal visit to the Middle East, the Catholic contributors to this interesting book – “If you had five minutes with the Pope, what would you say to him?” – are unimpressed.
Catholics in liberal societies like Britain and the United States may not have enjoyed John Paul II’s theological and ethical conservatism. But when it came to Catholic-Jewish relations, John Paul II was a hero.
It was so significant that a Polish Pope – a Pope from the country in which three million of its Jewish population of 3.3 million were murdered while many of their neighbours of 1,000 years stood by – understood the need for radical transformation in Catholic Jewish relations.
Speaking for myself, I waited with anxiety on the election of John Paul’s successor, fearing that the next Pope would come from a background with little or no direct experience of Jews and only the ingrained stereotypes of the New Testament to rely on.
But that wasn’t what happened at all. Instead we have what one contributor describes as the last Pope “who has been shaped by the events of the Shoah”, and, with typical divine irony, a German.
Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) had engaged in the rescue of Jews. Paul VI put Catholic-Jewish relationships on a new footing with Nostra Aetate. Karol Wojtyla, the “Polish Pope” did much to implement Nostra Aetate, Vatican II's statement on the relation of the Roman Catholic Church to non-Christian religions..
Now the cardinals elected Joseph Ratzinger, a Bavarian, who as a 14 year-old refused to attend Hitler Youth meetings. It was as if the papacy was completing the transformation of its relationship with European Jewry before the Catholic torch finally passes out of Europe – to a younger generation which according to Michael Berenbaum “has not learned its implications for inter-religious tolerance”.
Although a book published before the third papal visit to Israel might be expected to focus on the papal role in the Middle East crisis, it is in fact the crisis in relationship between the Vatican and Jewry which dominates. There are probably more references to Bishop Williamson, the rehabilitated Holocaust denier, than to the future of Jerusalem.
The most telling contribution of all comes from John Pawlikowski of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Pawlikowski analyses the pre-papal references and enigmatic, sometimes negative statements which seem to suggest that Benedict clings on to the centrality of Christ to Jewish salvation. He then refers to the episodes which dominate the papal contribution to Catholic-Jewish relations – the enthusiasm for Pius XII (and Luther); a retrogressive Good Friday prayer; the Williamson debacle. He identifies some “theological kernels” and urges Benedict to address them positively but the final analysis is filled with icy fury. This is a man who will not lead the Church to take the final steps in understanding and respect.
The Jewish contributors are, in the main, more muted in their response. But the British and American "professionals" in Jewish-Catholic dialogue are nevertheless very anxious.
The Israelis, less engaged in Jewish-Catholic dialogue, hope that Pope Benedict can help with their situation. Two Israeli historians of the Holocaust admit that Jews are, in the main, too little interested in Christianity (and Islam). Another secular academic laments enslavement to the past and calls for more dialogue. One survivor, once a hidden child now an eminent psychologist, emphasises the veneer of civilisation and our collective vulnerability, calling for more forgiveness and less ego.
There is the occasional ray of hope – a Palestinian Christian living in Israel and worshiping in a Catholic church built with the help of all three faiths, invites the Pope to his village. Others refer to the moral authority of the Pope and call on him to put the full weight of the Vatican behind a Middle East peace based upon justice for both Israelis and Palestinians.
But the dominant tone is one of anger, even of betrayal. Carol Rittner, an American Roman Catholic nun and co-editor of the book, describes the Pope’s ventures in the field of Catholic-Jewish relations as “unacceptable and insensitive”.
Her co-editor, the chairman of the Holocaust Day Trust in the UK, Stephen D Smith, calls for leadership, “You are a leader. Jews need your reassurance; Muslims need your friendship; Christians need your direction”.
But will they get it?
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