Mixed reactions to Pope’s Auschwitz speech
-01/06/06
While a Polish Jewish leader has
Mixed reactions to Pope’s Auschwitz speech
-01/06/06
While a Polish Jewish leader has praised the visit by Benedict XVI to the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex, a British academic has accused the Pope of failing adequately to condemn Christianityís history of anti-Semitism.
Stanislaw Krajewski, chair of Poland’s Council of Christians and Jews, said the papal visit had been an opportunity to say “important things which would be heard throughout the world”.
Krajewski was speaking as reactions continued to the Pope’s speech on 28 May 2006 at the ceremony in southern Poland, in which the leader of the worldís 1.5 billion Catholics said he had felt the need to visit the German-run death camp ìas a son of the German peopleî.
The Popeís speech was also welcomed by Orthodox Archbishop Jeremiasz Anchimiuk, president of the Polish Ecumenical Council, which groups seven other Christian denominations. A second major theme of the visit was ecumenical relations.
But David Cesarani, research professor in history at Royal Holloway, University of London, accused the Pope of a ìfailure of nerveî.
He declared: ìWhen Polish Jewish leaders appealed to the leaders of the church to condemn the post-war anti-Jewish violence, they responded that it expressed the understandable rage of the Polish people against ëexcessive Jewish influenceí. Yet Benedict, no matter how sincerely he pursues Catholic-Jewish reconciliation, stood on Polish soil and failed to challenge the myth that the Church was never sullied by anti-Semitism.î
However the Vatican has pointed out that Benedict has affirmed his predecessorís strong condemnation of Christian complicity with anti-Jewish sentiment and actions.
In recent months the Holy See has grown concerned that Polandís Radio Maryja Catholic station ñ with a daily audience of more than 1 million ñ has become increasingly identified with the far right, questioning ìthe holocaust industryî.
In March 2006 it offered a stiff condemnation of the station, and the Pope is believed to have spoken in strong terms about the issue to the Polish Catholic hierarchy.
Pope Benedict has invoked the Holocaust on several occasions to illustrate evil in its ugliest and most modern form.
But In his 2000 biography ëCardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican’s Enforcer of the Faith,í historian John L. Allen Jr concluded that the now-pontiff ìbelieves the best antidote to political totalitarianism is ecclesial totalitarianism.î
{Also on Ekklesia: Benedict says ‘never again’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau 29/05/06; Pope to face ecumenical and social questions in Poland; Churches strongly condemn anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial; Tensions set to continue around UK Holocaust Memorial Day; Churches remember holocaust victims; The dry eyes of deep grief by Giles Fraser; Iranian president asks Bush, what would Jesus do?; Pope Benedict invited to Rome synagogue]
Mixed reactions to Pope’s Auschwitz speech
-01/06/06
While a Polish Jewish leader has praised the visit by Benedict XVI to the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex, a British academic has accused the Pope of failing adequately to condemn Christianityís history of anti-Semitism.
Stanislaw Krajewski, chair of Poland’s Council of Christians and Jews, said the papal visit had been an opportunity to say “important things which would be heard throughout the world”.
Krajewski was speaking as reactions continued to the Pope’s speech on 28 May 2006 at the ceremony in southern Poland, in which the leader of the worldís 1.5 billion Catholics said he had felt the need to visit the German-run death camp ìas a son of the German peopleî.
The Popeís speech was also welcomed by Orthodox Archbishop Jeremiasz Anchimiuk, president of the Polish Ecumenical Council, which groups seven other Christian denominations. A second major theme of the visit was ecumenical relations.
But David Cesarani, research professor in history at Royal Holloway, University of London, accused the Pope of a ìfailure of nerveî.
He declared: ìWhen Polish Jewish leaders appealed to the leaders of the church to condemn the post-war anti-Jewish violence, they responded that it expressed the understandable rage of the Polish people against ëexcessive Jewish influenceí. Yet Benedict, no matter how sincerely he pursues Catholic-Jewish reconciliation, stood on Polish soil and failed to challenge the myth that the Church was never sullied by anti-Semitism.î
However the Vatican has pointed out that Benedict has affirmed his predecessorís strong condemnation of Christian complicity with anti-Jewish sentiment and actions.
In recent months the Holy See has grown concerned that Polandís Radio Maryja Catholic station ñ with a daily audience of more than 1 million ñ has become increasingly identified with the far right, questioning ìthe holocaust industryî.
In March 2006 it offered a stiff condemnation of the station, and the Pope is believed to have spoken in strong terms about the issue to the Polish Catholic hierarchy.
Pope Benedict has invoked the Holocaust on several occasions to illustrate evil in its ugliest and most modern form.
But In his 2000 biography ëCardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican’s Enforcer of the Faith,í historian John L. Allen Jr concluded that the now-pontiff ìbelieves the best antidote to political totalitarianism is ecclesial totalitarianism.î
{Also on Ekklesia: Benedict says ‘never again’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau 29/05/06; Pope to face ecumenical and social questions in Poland; Churches strongly condemn anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial; Tensions set to continue around UK Holocaust Memorial Day; Churches remember holocaust victims; The dry eyes of deep grief by Giles Fraser; Iranian president asks Bush, what would Jesus do?; Pope Benedict invited to Rome synagogue]