FEATURED JOBS
Until now, Pope Benedict XVI has shown himself to be a warm partner in interfaith dialogue in word and deed. So one can only greet with profound dismay his pardon of the United Kingdom’s Bishop Richard Williamson. The British Church leader and three other ex-communicated Catholic leaders were brought back into the fold on Saturday, Jan. 24. They are members of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX. Their group rejects the reforms of the famous 1965 Vatican II Council. Among other things, that landmark doctrine called for the formal removal of anti-Semitism from the Church.
That would be bad enough. But Williamson – I won’t give him his religious courtesy title because he cannot, in my book, be a religious person—last year publicly declared that no more than 300,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust and that there were no gas chambers.
Part of the response: In addition to the expected slew of critical press releases from Jewish groups, Israel’s Chief rabbis just broke relations with the Vatican and canceled participation in a scheduled March meeting in Rome with the pope’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
The only good news is that our shock and revulsion does not stand alone. In fact, Dutch bishops have called their British colleague’s remarks “disrespectful and idiotic.” Likewise, Germany’s Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, has said, “Such gibberish is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, the Pope is scrambling to do some damage control, according to the JTA Wire Service. In his Wednesday prayer at his public audience, he said, “While I renew with affection the expression of my full and unquestionable solidarity with our [Jewish] brothers, I hope the memory of the Shoah will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man.” For good measure, a front-page editorial in the official Vatican newspaper in its Monday-Tuesday edition called Williamson’s statements “unacceptable.” Then Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior-general of the SSPX, publicly disavowed statements by Williamson that denied the Holocaust and barred Williamson from speaking further on the issue.
You know what? It’s not good enough. If an important Jewish leader declared, “Jesus had it coming to him for challenging the rabbis of his day,” we Jews would quickly denounce that person and never give him or her an important position again. Not only that, but as sure you can bet that I’ll eat chicken soup at Shabbat dinner, that rabbi would be making a public apology within a day or two.
Frankly, this is a moment of disgrace for the Vatican. After 18 plus centuries of anti-Jewish Church-inspired persecution, it is abominable to become an apologist for a Christian theologian who questions humanity’s most documented crime and then does not seek to apologize.
Look, I’m more than aware about the dangers in lecturing other religious leaders about their conduct within their faith. But for we Jews– and I’d think all caring people—this is far more than an internal Church matter. It is about how the Church chooses to position itself publicly on the most sensitive of concerns.
Until now, Pope Benedict has had good marks in the always emotional sphere of Catholic-Jewish ties. He has visited a synagogue in his native Germany and received Jewish audiences in Rome. Prior to assuming the papacy, he was a behind-the-scenes positive force in Pope John Paul II’s remarkable outreach to Jews.
So one must wonder what constituency Pope Benedict sought to ameliorate in this recent decision – and why it would be worthy of a world leader’s passing thought.
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