Behind the Headlines: Pope John Paul’s Role is Questioned in Latest Catholic-jewish Flare-ups

Recent controversies have added yet another chapter to the tumultuous relationship between the Vatican and the Jewish community in the 11 years of John Paul’s pontificate.

The denial of God’s covenant with Jews in three recent homilies by Pope John Paul II and a Polish cardinal’s controversial decision to block removal of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz have seriously embittered delicate relations between Jews and the Roman Catholic church.

These events have raised the fundamental question of where the pope stands on Jewish-Catholic dialogue.

While John Paul took a historic step on April 16, 1986, by becoming the first pope to visit a Jewish synagogue, and has been active in promoting Jewish-Catholic dialogue, his tenure has also been marked by setbacks in the course of reconciliation begun by the second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s.

“Only the pope can remedy the situation which has been created,” said Rome’s Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff. “His taking a clear position on the fate of the ecumenical center at Auschwitz would placate the protests which, it is well to remember, do not just come from Jews.

“And by now it has become essential that the Vatican also reconfirm its theological vision of Judaism,” he said. “We don’t know anymore what to think and often we have the impression that there is not one church talking, but two — and in contrast with each other.”

Toaff’s reference was to the exception taken by three Catholic cardinals to Polish Cardinal Franciszek Macharski’s decision to block removal of the Carmelite convent from Auschwitz.

Macharski said his decision was based on protests by Jewish groups over the delay in moving the convent by the date specified in a joint Jewish-Catholic agreement reached in Geneva in 1987.

Cardinal Albert Decourtray, one of the four cardinals to sign the agreement, subsequently issued a statement sharply criticizing Macharski’s stand.

WITHOUT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

The Italian press quoted sources at the Vatican as saying that Macharski had issued his statement without the knowledge of the pope — which some observers said was hard to believe, given the close relationship between the two men and the pope’s continuing interest in events in his homeland.

Jewish leaders are profoundly concerned that the pope has never spoken out on the Auschwitz convent controversy.

“Why is the Vatican silent on this?” asked Tullia Zevi, president of Italy’s Jewish communities. “That’s what we want to know.”

This is the not the first time the pope has been taken to task over the Holocaust.

In June 1988, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel criticized the pontiff for a speech he gave at the Mauthausen concentration camp that failed to mention that any Jews had died there.

“It is now clear,” Wiesel wrote. “This pope has a problem with Jews, just as Jews have a problem with him. His understanding for living Jews is as limited as his compassion for dead Jews.”

Weisel also criticized the pope’s decision, a little more than a year later, to receive Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in a private audience at the Vatican. This was at the height of the controversy surrounding accusations that Waldheim had a Nazi past.

“Was this yet another attempt to whitewash the Church of its heavy responsibility for the European anti-Semitism that led to mass murder?” wrote Weisel.

Beyond his attitude toward the Holocaust, the pope sparked protests and tremendous anger within the Jewish community by receiving Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat at the Vatican in September 1982.

Jews are rankled by his constant support for the “Palestinian people’s right to have a homeland” — a policy set by his predecessor, Paul VI — and his continuing refusal to recognize the State of Israel.

JEWS ‘BETRAYED’ GOD’S COVENANT

Theological questions also have dogged the pope, the latest coming on the heels of the convent controversy.

In homilies on Aug. 2, 9 and 16, the pontiff called into question the fidelity of Jews in biblical times to divine law. He spoke of their “betrayal” of their special alliance with God.

The pope said that according to the Old Testament, God did “choose” Israel, but “on condition that the people observe the law that he gave, with the Decalogue and the other prescriptions and norms. For its part, Israel dedicated itself to this observance.

“The history of the ancient alliance attests to us that this dedication many times was not maintained. Especially the prophets reproved Israel for its unfaithfulness and they interpret the tragic events of its history as divine punishments.

“They (the prophets) threaten new punishments, but at the same time, they announce a new alliance,” the pope said, making clear that by this new alliance he meant the birth of Christianity.

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith immediately issued a sharp criticism of the homily, expressing “deep concern over the theological implications.”

TEMPORARY SETBACK

Some in Italy see this latest development as only a temporary setback.

“Never has there been the impression that John Paul II wanted to abandon the line of dialogue sanctified by the council and inherited from John XXIII and Paul the VI,” veteran Vatican correspondent Luigi Accattoli wrote in Corriere Della Sera newspaper.

“For almost every conflict, there has been a renewal of agreement,” he wrote.

Toaff, however, said it remained to be seen what would now happen vis-a-vis Jewish-Catholic relations. “It depends on the position that the Vatican adopts,” he said.

“Lately the dialogue has already slowed down,” Toaff said. “It remains very cordial with Cardinal (Johannes) Willebrands, who heads relations with Judaism.

“For the rest, we are profoundly deluded. And I’m convinced that in the end, the Carmelite convent in Auschwitz, symbol of the Jewish Holocaust, will not be moved.”