Cindy Wooden has a very commendable enterprise story that more of the Vaticanistas should have done.
Visit to Israel: Leaders know
and appreciate Pope's teaching on Judaism
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY, May 8 (CNS) -- As Pope Benedict XVI prepared to visit Israel in early May, Jewish leaders involved in dialogue appeared to be hopeful and not particularly wary about what the Pope would say.
On the other hand, many members of the Jewish community and Catholics sensitive to their feelings appeared to be holding their breath, praying that the Pope would not inadvertently offend his hosts.
The difference stems from the fact that
Jewish leaders know Pope Benedict's teaching about Jews and Judaism from his theological speeches and articles.
[Some Jewish leaders do - the Italian rabbis, for instance, seem to ignore everything Ratzinger-benedict XVI has ever said about Judaism and anti-Semitism and want him to start from scratch every time, They're the ones who Is aid would never be satisfied until the Pope has 'I am not anti-Semitic' or 'I love the Jews' visibly stitched on his garments so no one cam miss the message!]
Speaking in Rome in March, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the U.S.-born chief rabbi of Poland, said the Holy Land trip can be "very enlightening and help Pope Benedict show in a very clear way" the sensitivity and respect that has been clear in his writings for decades.
In evaluating the Pope's work, Jewish leaders appreciate several facts:
- Pope Benedict explicitly recognizes that God chose the Jewish people as his own and established a special bond with them;
- He recognizes that for centuries Christians used Jesus's death as an excuse to denigrate -- and even persecute -- the Jews; and
- He understands that the contempt some Christians had for the Jews created an atmosphere that the Nazis easily and progressively manipulated to the point of killing 6 million Jews.
But theological work does not grab the headlines the way gestures do and a Vatican explanation of a papal misstep may limit the damage, but it is hard to eliminate all suspicion.
Those who are worried can't seem to shake their puzzlement over the fact that in January the Pope lifted the excommunication of a bishop who minimized the Holocaust.
The Vatican later made it clear that Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of St. Pius X, who had denied the extent of the Holocaust, must publicly recant his views if he wants to function as a bishop in the Catholic Church.
Writing to the world's bishops in March, Pope Benedict said he was saddened that people seemed to jump to the conclusion that he was stepping back from efforts to promote reconciliation between Catholics and Jews and was rejecting the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.
"Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust," the Pope wrote after emphasizing the horror of the Holocaust and the importance of remembering it.
The papal apology was effective with the Church's Jewish dialogue partners because they were able to put the issue into the perspective of what they knew about the German-born pope's thinking, especially from what he had published as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The day the Vatican released the Pope's apologetic letter, Pope Benedict met with a delegation from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, chief rabbi of Haifa, told the Pope, "We thank the Holy See for making this renewal (of dialogue) possible by the clear and unequivocal statements deploring the Holocaust denial and making it very clear that the Catholic Church leaders are committed" to continue working for improved relations with the Jews.
In his remarks to the rabbis, the Pope reaffirmed in summary form his understanding of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council that make respect, dialogue and reconciliation between Catholics and Jews possible.
"The church recognizes that the beginnings of her faith are found in the historical divine intervention in the life of the Jewish people and that here our unique relationship has its foundation," he said.
"The Jewish people, who were chosen as the elected people, communicate to the whole human family knowledge of and fidelity to the one, unique and true God," the Pope said.
The teachings are the same as those meticulously spelled out by then-Cardinal Ratzinger during a speech to a major international Catholic-Jewish conference in Jerusalem in 1994.
The speech -- widely republished and included in Cardinal Ratzinger's book,
Many Religions, One Covenant -- is such a clear synthesis of his thinking about Jews and Judaism that Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, included the full text in background materials for Vatican Radio reporters covering the trip.
The future pope began with an acknowledgment: "The history of the relationship between Israel and Christendom is drenched with blood and tears. It is a history of mistrust and hostility, but also -- praise be to God -- a history marked again and again by attempts at forgiveness, understanding and mutual acceptance."
The Holocaust, he said, was not simply a horror to be remembered, but it is a demand on humanity -- especially on believers in the one God -- to engage in a mission of reconciliation and mutual acceptance.
But respect for the Jewish people and their ongoing special relationship with God does not and cannot mean that the pope will not speak about the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ as he visits the land of the savior's birth, life, death and resurrection.
The Pope is well aware, however, that for centuries Christians blamed the Jews, rather than human sinfulness, for Jesus's death and that attitude was at the root of the so-called "teaching of contempt."
It was a central topic in Cardinal Ratzinger's 1994 speech.
Even as a child growing up in Germany, he told his audience, "I could not understand how some people wanted to derive a condemnation of Jews from the death of Jesus because the following thought had penetrated my soul as something profoundly consoling: Jesus' blood raises no calls for retaliation, but calls all to reconciliation."
In the Bible, he said, "there are not two effects of the cross -- a damning one and a saving one -- but only a single effect, which is saving and reconciling."
[The full text of that 1994 address was posted early on in the NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT thread of the PRF and re-posted on this PILGRIMAGE thread, as well.]
Wooden has another enterprise story. CNS did well to assign both of its Vatican reporters to ocover this trip in addition to their local correspondents.
British knights hope papal trip
will contribute to peace in Holy Land
By Cindy Wooden
AMMAN, Jordan, May 9 (CNS) -- In the crowds that welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Jordan and followed him to Catholic schools and churches were several dozen people who have taken an oath to pray for and financially support the Catholic Church in the Holy Land.
Four dozen members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem were finishing a visit to the Holy Land when Pope Benedict arrived May 8.
In addition to funding schools, parishes, seminaries, hospitals and other projects of the church in the region, members of the order also helped the Vatican and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem cover the costs of the papal visit.
Michael Whelan, the order's lieutenant for England and Wales, said, "The work of the order is to help the Christians in the Holy Land.
"It would help most if, out of the Pope's visit, there came a new effort for a just and peaceful solution of the Palestinian situation so that Christians and Muslims could have the peace and freedom they need to live and to continue the peaceful coexistence that marked their relations for centuries," Whelan said.
"Christians, Muslims and Jews need to recognize each other's faith, each other's differences, but also their common links to the Holy Land," he said.
"At heart, they are all people with families, with cares, with aspirations and hopes for peace," he said.
Bernard Waddingham, treasurer of the British lieutenancy, said the order has made a special commitment to support the schools run by the Latin patriarchate in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The knights of England and Wales send pilgrimages to the Holy Land every six months, visiting the schools and other projects and personally handing over checks.
"We go around giving money -- I have a holy checkbook," Waddingham said.
Members of the group were among the people inside the Church of the Good Shepherd at the Regina Pacis center May 8 and planned to be at the May 10 Mass.
Margaret Waddingham, the treasurer's wife, said she was grateful to be at Good Shepherd with some of the Jordanians they have gotten to know through their work with the order.
"It was extraordinary seeing the faith and hope, especially of the young people, and their joy makes me want to help everyone," she said.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/05/2009 00:31]