At Rome synagogue, Pope defends Nazi-era Vatican
Israel asks pontiff to open Vatican archives in light of Jewish anger over moves to canonize Pius XII.
By News Agencies and Sivan Kotler de Benedetti Tags: Pope Benedict Jewish World Italy Israel newsPope Benedict XVI used his first visit to Rome's synagouge on Sunday to defend the oft-criticized actions of the Vatican during the Holocaust, saying the Church had "acted in a discreet and hidden way."
The pope made the comments after a Jewish leader bluntly told the pontiff that his wartime predecessor Pius XII was "silent" in the face of the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe, and should have spoken out more forcefully against the Holocaust.
"The silence of Pius XII before the Shoah still hurts because something should have been done," Riccardo Pacifici, president of Rome's Jewish community told the pope, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.
"Maybe it would not have stopped the death trains, but it would have sent a signal, a word of extreme comfort, of human solidarity, towards those brothers of ours transported to the ovens of Auschwitz [death camp]," he said.
Meanwhile, Israel, via Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, asked the pope during his synagogue visit to open up the Vatican archives covering Pius' papacy.
"I asked the pope to find a way to make it possible to open the archives in the Vatican in order to give some details of the papacy of Pius XII in order to ease tensions between the Jewish people and Catholics," Silvan Shalom told Reuters at the end of the pope's visit.
In his speech in the synagogue, Benedict balked at the accusation that the pope turned a blind eye to the plight of Europe's Jews, saying: "The Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way."
Benedict was welcomed with applause Sunday upon his arrival at the synagogue, a visit he said would improve relations between Catholics and Jews.
He was greeted by Rome and international Jewish leaders as he arrived at the synagogue on the banks of the Tiber - a short distance from the Vatican - to begin the two-hour visit.
Several prominent Jews said they would boycott the visit, but applause greeted the pope as he arrived at the synagogue in the Old Jewish Ghetto, where for hundreds of years Jews were confined under the orders of a 16th century pope.
Benedict warmly shook hands with the synagogue's retired chief rabbi, Elio Toaff, who welcomed John Paul II when the late pontiff visited the synagogue in a ground-breaking event in 1986.
A split at the heart of Italy's Jewish community over the visit and a barely averted crisis in relations with the Vatican did little to dampen the congregation's enthusiasm in welcoming the Pope.
Twenty-four hours before the pontiff's arrival, Sabbath prayers at the Rome synagogue resembled a movie set, with Italian Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni playing the role of director, assisted by a cohort of rabbis from across the country and around the world.
The synagogue's women's gallery was transformed into a press box for the occasion, expected to attract some 600 reporters. Plasma screens adorned the walls, while two television work-stations on either side of the Holy Ark - normally any synagogue's focal point - captured the rapt attention of the congregation's younger members.
"It looks like a scene from a movie," one older member said. "Let's just hope it has a happy ending."
As excitement over Benedict's arrival mounted over the past week, so did the tension. An announcement by the Vatican that it would expedite the process of making Pius XII a saint provoked alarm among many Jews, sewing discord among Italy's top rabbis and casting doubt on whether the visit would take place at all.
Last week, Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, president of Italy's rabbinical assembly, announced his refusal to participate in the event, saying it was unlikely to be fruitful and censuring the Rome community for its part in the affair. His condemnation, widely reported in the global press, has embarrassed Jewish leaders in Rome.
"The pope knew perfectly well that several weeks later he would be visiting the synagogue and he knew how sensitive we are about the issue of Pius XII. Wouldn't it have been opportune to delay (the decision) by a few months?" Laras asked in the Milan newspaper Il Giornale.
Laras, a former chief rabbi of Milan, said in another interview in the German Jewish weekly Judische Allgemeine that the visit should have been cancelled. He said ties between Catholic and Jews had "become increasingly weaker during this pontificate."
Tempers frayed still further when a few hours before the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday, Pope Benedict called publicly for unity between the Catholic Church and "Saint Pius XII," a hard-line conservative group that backs canonization of the controversial wartime pontiff and whose members include Richard Williamson and Florian Abrahamowicz - two priests at the center of a media storm last year when Pope Benedict ruled that they should be reinstated into the church, despite their apparent denial of the Holocaust.
In 2009 tensions with Jewish groups spiraled to the extent that the Vatican's spokesman, Federico Lombardo, was forced to reassure Jews publicly that "relations between Christians and Jews were not in dispute". On the eve of the Pope's synagogue visit, Jewish leaders in Italy told Haaretz that they had ordered congregations to keep silent in fear of stoking a quarrel that could see senior figures in the Jewsih community resign.
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Pope Benedict waves as he arrives at Rome's main synagogue Sunday. |
| Photo by: (Reuters) |
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Pope Pius did not have cannons or aircraft, but he had something much more powerful: he had access to the ears and hearts of hundreds of millions of Catholics, and possibly many millions of Protestants. He also had a fully operational network of priests and diplomats everywhere in the world, including all the theatres of war. If he had said to the faithful clearly and repeatedly that denouncing, deporting, and murdering Jews were not only legal crimes but also mortal sins, and if he had done this relentlessly at every level of the Church, from his own messages to the priests tending the souls of soldiers in the field, and had done this at every opportunity, he may have succeeded in creating a moral revolt. Gabriel Wilensky Author Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings About Jews Paved the Road to the Holocaust http://www.SixMillionCrucifixions.com Follow me on Tweeter at http://twitter.com/sixmillionbook
Of course, he's right. The Catholic hierarchy, like many political entities in Europe, did not have the inclination to defend those it had spent centuries villifying. Yes, there were individual Catholic heroes, like Stauffenburg and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but the Church, as an institution, shamefully assisted in the Shoah.
Men and Women sit together , there is no separation ! There are other reforms in this increasing group , as well as in the Liberal Synagogues. Thus, many many Jews are free to keep excellent old Jewish laws and principles and reject or reform certain practices of 1000's of years ago which are not appropriate today. The Christians also had odd practices, not to mention some barbaric ones, but they have reformed over the centuries. It may now be the turn of Islam to try and adapt its principles to modern days.
"...The feeling being that if separated it is easier to concentrate on the praying instead of looking at the other sex...." Arnold - hard to see how women can avoid "looking at the other sex" if they are banished to a gallery. PLease stop reciting this "drash" drivel of their being purer than men - you know very well they are shunted aside because God "has made them (only) women", unlike YOU.Isn't that in your daily prayer ? B'H Reform and Conservatives have corrected this nonsense. David
Wrong:The correct facts:Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who died as prisoner 16670 in Auschwitz, on August 14, 1941. When a prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected 10 others to be killed by starvation in reprisal for the escape. One of the 10 selected to die, Franciszek Gajowniczek, began to cry: "My wife! My children! I will never see them again!" At this Father Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place - his request was granted. As the ten condemned men were led off to the death Block of Building 13, Father Kolbe supported a fellow prisoner who could hardly walk. No one would emerge alive - Father Kolbe was the last to die .. This is his story. NOT YOUR IGNORANT FICTION.KOLBE was a saint of a person. But he went in place of Franciszek Gajowniczek not a Jewish child.At the time Kolbe was an inmate most of the inmates were polish prisoners of war. Jews were shipped later for gasing and crematoria. Mr. Haddad, keep your facts straight
You are mistaken.Google it yourself "In November, WoW member Nofrat Frankel, a Conservative Jew, was briefly detained by police for wearing a talit - prayer shawl - and carrying a Torah. The offense can carry a maximum sentence of six months jail and a fine of about $3,000." Now, do you have an answer for me?
A real bigoted statement that is not true. All you anti-Zionists always lie and attack Jews because of your jealousy.
Dear Sophia, I am astonished to your radicalism. Our Catholic Church has committed several errors during past times, like all religious entities. It's human to err and it's divine to forgive. But there were not only shadows, but some lights. You don't know, surely, that Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest, choose to go to death, in Auschwitz, being changed with a Jewish child. We, true Christians, are friends of yours. We must fight together for a fair and democratic world. Please, reflect about it. Luiz Felipe Haddad.
Dr.L. Brnd again demonstrates his tenuous grasp of histoy. He is obviously unaware of the Vatican encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge". The authors of this encyclical were Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pius XII) and Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich. The encyclical condemned in particular the paganism of Nazi ideology and their myth of race and blood. This encyclical was smuggled into Germany to ensure that it was read in all Catholic Churches before the Nazis could act.
Certain elements of Jewish communities feel that they should tell the Church of Rome how to act. In the USA, the ADL makes an issue of the Latin version of the Easter liturgy because of the content of a particular prayer. Now, Jews everywhere are advising the Vatican on whom to canonize. While many Jews may have opinions on these matters, I would argue that lecturing the Pope on how to run his Church is a little over the top. As long as Church policies do not restrict, injure or deprive Jews of their rights, such matters are not the business of Jewish organizations. Their beliefs are their concern, not ours. No one seems to like it when the Pope mentions the plight of Gazans. I wonder how Jews would react if Catholics were to protest the Shema. It's the same thing, isn't it?
# 34 ks. A sane voice of truth & courage !
"ww2 was a bad time for everyone" And the lion shall lie down with the lamb. However, the lamb doesn't sleep very well.
let's stop the PC bull on this issue. A real pope, with real courage would have said loudly and openly, at the risk to themselves and their church, that what hitler was doing was unacceptable to the church. THAT would have been the right thing to do, THAT would have required courage and THAT would have rightly then been something worthy of sainthood. Speaking in hushed secret tones behind the scenes was clearly not an act worthy of a pope. FRANKLY, this pope was looking to save his own hide, preserve his own church and knowingly shrank from what needed to be said...THAT is not leadership and THAT is NOT what I believe the church should stand for. Does anyone think jesus would have been silent? It's no wonder so many have lost faith in the church.
nazis. This wan not the time to be quiet. Shame on the pope for pretending that being quiet helped saved people. the Vatican should be ashamed and I am sure if Jesus Christ the Rabbi was alive today he would disassociate himself from this group. Where is the voice of the pope today while so many Christians are being persecuted throughout the Middle East. Soon Christians will ethnically/religiously cleansed from arab lands ant their only solace will be Israel.
No doubt the things you quote are not zionist mythology, aren't they? Yet when one reads attentively, at the bottom, all you want is what all zionists want: money! As the son of a French Jew who died in the camps wrote on Le Monde (open letter to Israel"s PM): "My father would be ashamed to have his name on the Israel monuments to the Holocaust, please remove it!" This is a genuine human being!
moral obligation to humanity, other wise he is not a religious person but a corrupt politician
Where can I find these documents?
do believe if this Pope reflected on Pius' conduct he would vilify him , not make him a Saint. Pius had a long history of deal making with Hitler starting with the Concordat of 1933 and the bishops that worked for him were ardent Jew haters, who helped the Nazi escape to South America after the war. There were some Protestant ministers who stood up to Hitler defending their Jewish neighbors and some paid the ultimate price and some survived.
Father Abrahamowicz was born in Vienna. He has some Jewish lineage but was never brought up in the religion. He is Catholic through and through. But......if this was Nazi Germany he would have qualified for the gas chamber. Hope this answers your question.
It is NOT ILLEGAL in Israeli synagogues or synagogues anywhere else for women to carry a Torah or prayer shawl. Yes traditionally men partake more in the daily rituals of Judaism and daily prayers but it is not taboo for women to get involved. In fact during the High Holiday of Simchas Torah all Jews are welcome to hold and walk around with a Torah. Judaism as a religion has changed with the times and there are female Rabbis as well as female Cantors. Cantors are those people that sing many of the prayers during servives.
During religious services men and women are separated. The separation can be as simple as a piece of fabric or a piece of furniture. It is a tradition going back to earlier times. The feeling being that if separated it is easier to concentrate on the praying instead of looking at the other sex. By the way Moslems follow the same separation. Another thing they have copied from Judaism. On regular day to day occurences within the synagogue that do not involve prayers, men and women can sit together.
The Vatican has supported the criminal Nazi regime. The same way the Pope remains silent on the crimes committed against Palestinians. Nothing has changed....
First of all, the church is not a court, that they did help Nazis to flee does not say anything. Yepp, a strong word may have helped more than silence, but we dont know what they really did. Lets not forget that the US etc did not bomb Eichkmanns railways, no even that.
why do the jews of rome need a special relationship with the vatican? the role of the pope and the vatican during and following the nazi era is well documented and it is shameful. why oh why do we jews so want the approval of our sworn enemies. from the rise of fascism in europe the writing was on the wall for jews yet many italian jews supported mussolini until his regime began actually to deport members of the community. it seems some of us will never learn which side of the barricade our interests lie.
"... he must agree to open soon the Vatican archives so that we and the world can gain the confirmation for his good faith and infallible opinion." - Daniel I needed a laugh.
totally pre-modern, in fact almost medieval...
Please read more carefully the account of the pope's visit in the Rome Synagogue. You will find that the very Riccardo Pacifici, who accused Pius XII of silence, owes his life to nuns in Florence hiding his family in an convent. Roman Catholic nuns, you understand? History will tell, and I agree it would be good to see progress in the study of the documents. But believing that any official statement by Pius XII would have helped anybody to escape the grip of the Nazi is naive, considering the times.
I am surprised to read the Vatican accused not to have done anything against Nazism, before WWII. May I remind you all the Encyclical letter "Mit brennender Sorge", which was written precisely to denounce Nazism by his predecessor, Pius XI, in 1937. When you check it, note it was written in German, not in Latin, for the first time in history as far as I know, precisely to ensure that the message was understood by everybody in Germany. Maybe Pius XII could have done more, history will tell. However, thousands of Jews have been saved in Italy by the Church, for instance hidden in the Lateran in Rome, something which could not have been possible without explicit approval by the Pope.
These commandments that have been taught to us observant Jews only concern men because the Original Sin was taught to Adam only, since Ava did not existed at the time. So the reparation from the Mitzvos only regard us. Also, it IS an obligation for women to pray and study too, since they did not fault and have pure souls whose prayers are always accepted. They just have to let men get their sins forgiven without inspiring others, like forbidden relations. I am happy to have informed you.
During the middle ages and inquisition,many rare jewish manuscripts and books were stolen from the Jews and hidden in the cellars of the Vatican .When do they return in jewish hands again?
... he must agree to open soon the Vatican archives so that we and the world can gain the confirmation for his good faith and infallible opinion.
Hitler had immense leverage over the Pope. That Hitler and his Nazi gangsters were capable of anything was obvious and long before Hitler started sweeping all Jews into concentration camps he had arrested lots of Catholic priests and nuns deemed threats to security. Only those most loyal and deluded supporters of Hitler thought that folks were well treated in concentration camps, and were in no danger.
Pious XII was so discreet about helping everyone he did nothing for anyone. The man was spineless and his crimes of omission rather than commission. The Catholic Church was the worlds first Trans-National corporation and at the best of time a Pope has a political balancing act of immense proportions. Being the omnipotent, unquestionable and inerrant dictator of a world-wide organization requires great dedication to accomplish anything. One thing you cannot accuse Pius XII of possessing is dedication or determination. He twisted in the winds of the time without direction or substance.
What exactly did the infants an unborn of Haiti do to deserve their death and destruction? What nonsense you utter!
The Pope is good. He did not have to try going to the synagog but the Pope has love in his heart. The other man Riccardo Pacifici was a disgrace and showed hatred to the Pope.
The great respect needs to be for the God of the Jews. The Catholic Church fulfilled Daniel prophecies and rejected the word of God in the Bible. They have established a god other than Jehovah God and His word. Jews who accept the message of peace instead a message of repentance for turning multitudes from the God of Israel would not please Jehovah. God promises HE will destroy false teaching etc. Both popes mentioned have been sent corrective messages and have rejected them. Jews need to return to the truth of God?s word without adding traditions of men and without accepting false religions among them. Jesus said to live by EVERY word of God, as did Moses and that was the message through Muhammad, emphasizing the Torah and Gospel and whatever God sent down. It is the Catholic Church and its daughter churches that stand in the way of the Kingdom of God; that must change. Jews cannot see Jesus as the Messiah because Christians portray him as the false prophet of Deuteronomy 13. He did away with nothing; his message was Repent, not ignore God?s word through Moses and the Prophets. In Leviticus 26 God promises terror and 4 x 7 curses to those who reject His word UNTIL we turn to His truth. Haiti's poverty and destruction would not happen with true religion. They had a major Catholic teaching and they accepted Voodoo as an accepted national religion through former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. http://www.divine-way.com God has solutions to world problems we created by ignoring His wisdom.
Odd that not many would mention this litle fact. My family was victim to Walter Rauff in Tunis, he developed the " gas van" and was one the creators of the Odessa org.
I have been trying to get an answer for some time. My question has been - If one must have a jewish mother to be a jew, why is it illegal (in Israel) for a jewish mother to carry a Torah or wear a prayer shawl?
Acccording to the narrative the Vatican would like us to believe, Pius didn't loudly denounce Hitler or visibly aid Holocaust victims for fear of wartime retaliation from the Nazis. OKKKKK. But that doesn't explain why BEFORE WW2, Pius refused to allow Church criticism of Nazi anti-Jewish acts, why AFTER the 1945 defeat of Germany, Pius STILL refused to denounce Nazism, STILL refused publically rally aid to Holocuast victims, refused to recognize the State of Israel, refused to return billions in Holocaust victims assets in Vatican banks and insurance companies. Why Pius' Vatican laundered stolen Holocaust victims money for Hitler through Vatican banks during the WW2 (they don't dispute this, rely on legal technicalities to evade paying reparations), or why Pius' Vatican organized the flight of Nazi war criminals to South America through its "Odessa" network (few of them were even Catholics). Pius was a non-prosecuted war criminal, an active collaborator of Nazism - not a "saint".
ww2 was a bad time for everyone...to come out against nazi treatment of jew would have made the vatican the enemy of nazi and it would have been closed...once again the pope has a primary reponsibily to roman catholics, and to martyr itself for the jews would not have helped anyone, although it would make you happy
organisation run by the pious padres after the WW2 wasn't mentioned by the Pope
Is it permitted to drink Popesi-cola?
The Holocaust is an undeniable fact. 75 million people, Jew and Gentile, suffered and died. The Jewish portion, the Shoah, is claimed to be 6 million dead. How can anyone be called a "Holocaust denier" when questioning it's accuracy? And imprisoned also. Something stinks. Salaam/Shalom
Then I may be sioux!!!
"The synagogue's women's gallery was transformed into a press box for the occasion,"Haaretz Where did the Women sit and are they normally just observers in a "GALLERY" watching the men practising "THEIR" religion????.