Even in the face of the all-too-obvious fact that most news is 'bad news' - or perhaps, better said, that media today consider controversy and negative news as deserving of news priority - the reporting connected with the Pope's coming visit to the Rome Synagogue has been a relentless emphasis on the negative.
In which, for instance, the objection of a single rabbi is given the same importance as the visit itself, even though not only leaders of the Rome and Italian Jewish communities are taking part, but also rabbis from Israel and other representatives of world Jewry.
The Pope will be welcomed on Sunday by
- the host for the visit, Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome
- Riccardo Pacifici, president of the Jewish Community of Rome
- Renzo Gattegna, president of the Italian Jewish Communities
- Shear Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa
- Ratson Arussi, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Ono
- David Brodman, Chief Rabbi of Savyon
- David Rosen, director of the American Jewish Commitee
- David Sperber, president of the Institute of Advanced Torah Studies at the University of Bar-Ilan (Israel)
- Oded Wiener, secretary-general of the Grand Rabbinate of Israel; and
- Josef Levi, Chief Rabbi of Florence.
I hate to sound uncharitable but not all of these people may feel sincerely welcoming to the Pope. Some of them have made offensive statements about him with regard to Pius XII and to the Holocaust. So why do they want to be there? Why are they going out of their way to come from Israel and other places to be in Rome for the visit?
Because, it seems to me, being with the Pope at any event - particularly something considered historic such as this one - and/or attacking the Pope is one sure way for them to be in the world spotlight, or at least, the subject of worldwide news reporting.
This story by the reliably contrary (often perverse) Richard Owen illustrates all of the above:
Rabbi to boycott Pope's
visit to Rome synagogue
by Richard Owen in Rome
Jan. 15, 2009
The Chief Rabbi of Rome yesterday sought to defuse a row over
threats by leading Italian Jewsg to boycott an historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the city’s synagogue.
[In this article, Owen only mentions two boycotters - one rabbi and one Holocaust survivor - so using the phrase 'threats by leading Italian Jews' is an obvious attempt to make it worse than it really is.]
Giuseppe Laras, head of the Italian Rabbinical Assembly, said he would not attend Sunday’s papal visit because it “will bring nothing good and
will only benefit the more reactionary sectors of the Church”.
[In what way does any Catholic benefit from a visit that has obviously been 'allowed' to proceed only because how would it look if the Jews cancelled an invitation they had previously given under no duress?
BTW, this is the same rabbi who, last year, led the Italian Jews to boycott the observance of the annual Day for Catholic-Jewish Dialog by writing a poisonous article against Benedict XVI and Pius XII for a Jesuit magazine in Venice - which had no business publishing such an article to begin with. Whose side are they on anyway?]
He said Pope Benedict had offended Holocaust survivors by putting Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff, on the path to sainthood last month, despite allegations that he failed to raise his voice against the Holocaust.
In an interview with
The Times Riccardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi, said: “We discussed extensively whether to cancel the visit and decided that it must go ahead despite what happened”. He said he and Rabbi Laras had “different views, and time will tell which of us has made the right choice”.
He agreed that Pius XII’s record “remains a controversial historical problem for us”. However the issue should be “studied in a calm way, in other forums”, with the Vatican opening its archives on the wartime Pope to scholars, Rabbi Di Segni
suggested.
[Suggested! How disingenuous! Neither Di Segni nor Owen bother to say that yes, those Archives will be open, in 2014! interested parties will simply have to wait, nothing they can say or do will hasten that date, because it is all a matter of material time, and besides, why don't they look into what is already available?
They will never be satisfied about Pius XII - even after all available archives have been made public - if they do not find one shred of documentary evidence to support their ironcast conviction about Pius XII's guilt. What do they expect to find? A letter or a diary by Pius XII or someone close to him attesting that he really agreed with Hitler that the Jews should be exterminated. Even as they ignore the 12 volumes of Fr. Blet's report on the relevant documents that exist, just because the documents show a Pope who helped the Jews as much as he could!
The Vatican, which has said the archives cannot be made available until 2014, insists Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save Jews, and that Benedict’s recent decree recognising his “heroic virtues” was not an historical assessment of his pontificate but confirmation that he had led a Christian life.
Piero Terracina, an 82-year-old Italian Jewish Holocaust survivor, also plans to boycott the visit because Pius XII had “not said one word” when over a thousand Jews were rounded up in the Rome ghetto in October 1943 and sent to death camps.
However Shlomo Venezia, 86, who like Mr Terracina was deported to Auschwitz, said he would go because “the Pope is the Pope, a great spiritual head. We have to find a way to go foward together, as brothers.” [God bless Shlomo and enlighten the Larases and Terracinas of the world!]
Benedict’s visit will be his third to a synagogue but his first to the one in Rome.
In his interview with The Times, Rabbi Di Segni said some Italians had not faced up to the country’s role in persecuting the Jews under Fascism, or acknowledged the “considerable number” of Italian Jews sent to concentration camps.
Asked if there had been complicity between the Nazis and the Catholic Church, he said: “Let’s say, acquiescence.”
Now why would Di Segni say anything as outrageous as that? Acquiescence? When catholics themselves were among those persecuted by the Nazis?
Also, since he is the host for the visit, Di Segni should have had the courtesy and consistency to say, "I am not going to say anything at ths time that will just fan any controversy. After the visit, ask me again."
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/01/2010 20:43]