Posted on 02/17/2005 6:40:45 PM PST by SJackson
Growing up in the small Polish village of Wadowice, Karol Wojtyla, now Pope John Paul II, counted many Jews among his friends and neighbors.
A Jewish family owned his childhood house. Across the street, he watched his neighbors build their succah and light the Chanukah candles. Although there were separate Catholic and Jewish soccer teams, the young Wojtyla was always ready to play on the Jewish team.
His closest friend was Jerzy Kluger, whose father was president of the local synagogue. When the synagogue hired its first cantor on Yom Kippur eve, Wojtyla went to listen to the chanting of the Kol Nidre. Later, as pope, he remarked on how that evening's prayer moved and inspired him.
It was these experiences that have made John Paul II the greatest papal friend of the Jewish people in modern times, said Professor David Dalin, a rabbi and professor of history and political science at Ave Maria University in Florida.
"As pope, he built new conversations between Christians and Jews," said Dalin, speaking last week at John Carroll University.
The young Wojtyla's early friendships with Jews and his own experience living in Nazi-occupied Poland amidst virulent anti-Semitism no doubt shaped his views, said Dalin, who was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The pope's historic visit to the Rome Synagogue in 1986 and the Vatican's establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994 stem from his childhood experiences.
"His visit to the Rome synagogue was a culmination of the journey that began in his hometown of Wadowice attending Yom Kippur services," Dalin said. "It marked the beginning of a new era in Catholic-Jewish relations."
Recognizing the state of Israel was another milestone that some scholars said the Vatican would never do.
But Pope John Paul II proved the scholars wrong. No pope had ever publicly referred to Israel before, perhaps because of the Christian theology that Jews were condemned to wander the earth since they refused to accept Jesus as a messiah, Dalin said. In fact, in 1904, Pope Pius X told Theodore Herzl, considered the father of Zionism, that he couldn't support a Jewish state.
"Over the objections of some diplomats at the Vatican, John Paul II personally took the initiative to recognize the state of Israel," Dalin said. "He changed history, transforming the Vatican's relationship to Zionism and the Jewish state."
When Wojtyla became pope, his childhood friend Kluger and his wife Rene were the first dinner guests at the Vatican. Over the years, they've frequently visited the pope at the Vatican and at his summer home, Castel Gandolfo.
When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Wojtyla saw his Jewish neighbors disappear, Dalin said. Thus, when John Paul II visited Auschwitz in 1979, the first pope to do so, he paid tribute to the Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust, including those of his Polish friends. He called Jewish-Catholic dialogue a religious obligation for Catholics, Dalin said.
Immediately following his elevation to the papacy in 1978, John Paul reaffirmed the historic 1965 Vatican II document Nostra Aetate (In Our Time) The document repudiated the centuries-old Christian teaching that all Jews, including those in modern times, were guilty of the death of Jesus.
Throughout his papacy, John Paul II has stressed the common spiritual heritage of Christians and Jews, Dalin said. Addressing German Jewish representatives visiting the Vatican in 1980, he called the Hebrew Scriptures a sacred text and Judaism a "living legacy" that must be understood by Christians.
The Jews, the pope said, were the people of God, and their covenant with God has never been revoked.
In an address to Jewish leaders in Warsaw, the pope noted that the suffering of the Jewish people in the Holocaust served as the world's conscience. The Jewish memory of the Shoah, he added, was a warning voice for all of humanity.
At the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 200 Holocaust survivors attended a Holocaust memorial concert at the Vatican. The pope arranged for the recitation of the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, and lit six candles to honor the six million Jews killed in the Shoah.
"We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah," the Vatican's historic 1998 document, expresses repentance for individual Catholics' failure to protest the murder of Jews during the Shoah, Dalin said. However, other scholars have noted that the document absolved the church's doctrinal teachings of any responsibility. It also defended Pope Pius XII, who Jews fault for his silence during the Holocaust.
While Dalin acknowledged the document is controversial, he said the defense of Pope Pius XII was just a footnote. Furthermore, Dalin said Pope John Paul II described the Holocaust in a preface as "unspeakable iniquity and an indelible stain on the century."
When the pope visited Israel in March 2000, he continued his mission to further Jewish-Catholic relations. He had a tearful meeting with Holocaust survivors from Wadowice, Dalin noted. He saluted an Israeli flag and listened, "profoundly moved," to "Hatikvah," Israel's national anthem.
The pope's prayer at the Western Wall, where millions of Jews have prayed since the Romans destroyed the temple, "acknowledged the whole validity of Jewish prayer," Dalin said. "He affirmed Judaism, with no political, theological or social caveat."
John Paul II spoke at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, Dalin related. "No words are strong enough to describe my own personal memories," of my Jewish neighbors and friends, the pope said. "Remember, so never again shall evil prevail."
Custom or diplomacy matters nothing to me in the context of social or political meaning, especially when it contravenes Church teaching and dogma ("One true Faith." Anyone who sees no harm in what was done or suggesting it was appropriate in this instance "out of respect" for the Koran or whatever other purpose is beyond my comprehension. By the way, when was the last time you saw a Saudi sheik (or orthodox rabbi for that matter) kiss the New Testament out of some compelling notion of diplomacy or custom?
As for the clown "mass" picture, I don't mind if it published far and wide, and constantly. It serves a serious reminder of how far the Sacrifice of the Mass in the NO church has descended to the depths of apostasy.
They said the same about Martin Luther.
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