Analysis: Pope Benedict's Visit in Israel
 Pope
Benedict's visit to the Holy Land was an emotional experience for me,
as it was for many. Ironically, I was not able to see him
"live" from my usual place of residence in Jerusalem, but had
to be content with watching him on live internet broadcasts from Rome,
where I am currently residing for a few months. This gave me a unique
perspective on the papal visit - and not only because I probably saw
and heard the pope much better than had I tried to make my way through
the crowded sites. Rather than hearing first-hand Israeli reactions to
the pope's visit, I got to observe and engage many Catholic reactions
from the Eternal City and heart of the Church. These turned
out to be a real eye opener. Observing the reactions and
counter-reactions to the Holy Father's visit drove home the reality of
the immense gap in understanding that remains to be bridged between
Jews and Christians.
The Pope's Message to Israel
Benedict's visit to the Holy Land was and probably will remain
the most complicated and sensitive trip of his pontificate.
Even before he arrived there was a sense in the air that "anything that
can be misinterpreted will be."
Now that the dust has settled, it is fair to say that the trip
generated very mixed feelings. Let's look at a few highlights
of the Holy Father's visit that are particularly relevant to
Jewish-Christian relations, and the way they were received and
perceived by Israelis and Catholics. [Benedict's most
important speeches can be found on our page Pope
Benedict XVI in Israel.]
Even before he arrived in Israel, from Mount
Nebo in Jordan the pope already emphasized the
"inseparable bond" that connects the Church with the Jewish
people, and the imperative of working towards reconciliation between
them:
The ancient tradition of pilgrimage to the holy
places also reminds us of the inseparable bond between the Church and
the Jewish people. From the beginning, the Church in these lands has
commemorated in her liturgy the great figures of the Patriarchs and
Prophets, as a sign of her profound appreciation of the unity of the
two Testaments. May our encounter today inspire in us a renewed love
for the canon of Sacred Scripture and a desire to overcome all
obstacles to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in mutual
respect and cooperation in the service of that peace to which the word
of God calls us!
Upon his arrival at the Tel Aviv airport on Monday, May 11,
Benedict was greeted by President Shimon Peres and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There, in his arrival
speech, he immediately made a clear and unequivocal
condemnation of anti-Semitism that was well-received:
Tragically, the Jewish people have experienced the
terrible consequences of ideologies that deny the fundamental dignity
of every human person. It is right and fitting that, during my stay in
Israel, I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the six
million Jewish victims of the Shoah, and to pray that humanity will
never again witness a crime of such magnitude. Sadly, anti-Semitism
continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world. This is
totally unacceptable. Every effort must be made to combat anti-Semitism
wherever it is found, and to promote respect and esteem for the members
of every people, tribe, language and nation across the globe.
Controversy at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
 After a warm reception at the President's
residence the same afternoon, Benedict then visited
the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial for what turned out to be the most
controversial part of his visit. In his much scrutinized
speech, the successor of Peter said that he had come to
"stand in silence before this monument, erected to honor the memory of
the millions of Jews killed in the horrific tragedy of the Shoah."
The pope then respectfully honored the name and
memory of the dead. He warned against any attempt at denying
the Holocaust: "May their suffering never be denied, belittled or
forgotten!" He spoke of the Church's "deep compassion" for the victims
and somewhat generically said how the Church "draws close to all those
who today are subjected to persecution on account of race, color,
condition of life or religion" and how the cry of the victims is "a cry
raised against every act of injustice and violence."
I must admit that as soon as Benedict finished speaking I knew
that his speech would not be very well received. There was
nothing wrong with what he said. The problem was with
many crucial things that were not
said, and sadly because of this a unique opportunity for
Jewish-Christian reconciliation was lost. Sure enough,
immediately a flurry of criticism was heard in the Israeli media.
Most Jewish listeners thought the speech was disappointing.
It was said that the pope had not mentioned the number 6 million, had
used the word "killed" instead of "murdered," and had not mentioned the
Nazis or Germans, a significant silence considering his own identity as
a German. It was said that the speech lacked empathy and
sorrow. Most importantly, the pope stopped short of making an
apology or even expressing regret for the long history of
Christian anti-Semitism that had paved the way for the Shoah.
The main headline in the English-language Haaretz was
representative of many others: "[Holocaust]
Survivors angered by Benedict's 'lukewarm' speech."
The lead editorial of the same Israeli daily added:
The thorough preparations for his visit to Israel,
the complex traffic and security arrangements, and the millions of
shekels that were earmarked for his hospitality evaporated as if they
did not exist thanks to a speech that was missing one word — 'sorry.'
To me, these emotional, overly critical and at times
uncharitable reactions were no surprise. To the outsider they may have
seemed like petty and immature nitpicking against a speech that was
sensitive, respectful, dignified, and moving. Clearly there was a wide
gap in how the pope's speech was understood by Jews and Catholics.
But what was really troubling for me was to hear and observe
not a few harsh and insensitive Catholic counter-reactions that showed
little or no genuine desire to try to understand the Israeli
disappointment. Again and again I encountered impatient
responses such as: "Those Jews are never happy!" or "why should the
pope be obliged to satisfy their rigid expectation of what
they think he should have said?" I heard Catholics say that
the Jews should just "get over" the Holocaust. Others thought
that since John Paul II had asked for forgiveness nine years ago the
matter had been taken care of and there was no need to return to the
topic. It was now time to move on. Topping off the disgraceful
Catholic remarks were the comments of Father Thomas D. Williams, LC
writing for Zenit. Fr. Williams described
Rabbi Ysrael Meir Lau, chairman of the Yad Vashem memorial and
a holocaust survivor whose father died in the Treblinka death camp, as
"looking as if he had recently eaten something particularly
disagreeable to his stomach" during the pope's speech. Sorry, Father
Williams, that Rabbi Lau was not looking more cheerful as he pondered
the murder of his father and his own nightmare in the Nazi death
machine where two thirds of his people were ruthlessly exterminated.
To me such reactions testified to a total lack of
sensitivity towards the gaping wound that remains in the
Jewish soul following the abyss of the Holocaust - the decimation of
the Jewish people that followed upon the heels of centuries of
vicious Christian anti-Semitism and persecution. The
hair-splitting criticism over Benedict's choice of words was not the
issue. This was only a symptom of a much deeper malaise.
Unfortunately, it seemed that few Catholics were willing to
extend the grace to overlook the emotional reactions and consider the
deep hurt underlying them. Too many Catholics possibly remain
unaware that for most Jews, Christianity is not the religion that
brought peace and love into the world, but rather the one that
caused unspeakable suffering upon them for the greater part of
their history: from the first centuries of the Church, blaming the
Jews for the death of Christ led to forced conversions and
baptisms, public humiliations and mythical accusations
resulting in brutal executions, the burning of synagogues, mass exiles
and deportations, ghettoes, and murderous pogroms - to only scratch the
surface of this less than illustrious past. The few positive steps
towards repentance and reconciliation initiated a decade ago by John
Paul II, as groundbreaking as they were, were not enough to heal this
painful heritage. Constant, persevering and enduring efforts
remain an imperative to bring genuing healing and reconciliation
between Israel and the Church.
Identificational Repentance
In my opinion, what was most
lacking about the pontiff's visit in Israel was identificational repentance.
This is a key biblical principle by which a representative of
a group of people repents and asks forgiveness not for his own sins but
for those of his forefathers or predecessors. Though he may
be entirely innocent of personal guilt, he identifies with
the sins of his forefathers to the point of almost considering them his
own, and he repents and
asks forgiveness in
their place. Anyone who understands the theology of the
communion of saints will know that this is a very Catholic concept.
We can see a beautiful example of identificational repentance
in the book of Daniel (9:1-19). Daniel was a righteous man
who contemplated the tragic destiny of his people from the perspective
of the Babylonian captivity. He realized that the sins of
Israel had led to their humiliating exile. Though he bore no
personal guilt for this tragedy, Daniel prayed a moving and humble
prayer asking God forgiveness for the sins of his fathers:
O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant
and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His
commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done
wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your
judgments... We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God,
to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the
prophets... O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I
pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city
Jerusalem... because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our
fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around
us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant,
and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine
on Your sanctuary... (Dan 9:4-5, 10, 16-17)
Calls for Pope Benedict to apologize for his personal past as
a German were out of place because it is well known that his family was
strongly opposed to the Nazi regime. However, as head of the
universal Church, the Church whose children were responsible for such a
long history of unjust persecution of the Jews, and especially as a son
of the German people, would it not have been fitting and good
to make a strong statement of identificational repentance at this
historical moment, in the presence of Holocaust survivors? What would
have been the cost? What was there to lose?
Bewilderment at the absence of repentance was not only
expressed by Jews. Christians also expressed dismay at the words that
were left unspoken. In a special commentary on the pope's
visit, Rev. Malcolm Hedding, executive director of
the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, pointedly
asked: "Why is it so hard to embrace humility and repent? After all,
these are the great hallmarks of the Christian faith."
Hedding underlined the prophetic nature of humble repentance
towards Israel, pointing out how Isaiah foresaw that "the sons
of those who afflicted you [Israel] shall come bowing to you, and all
those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet"
(Isaiah 60:14).
As head of the organization that has perhaps done the most to
further Jewish-Christian reconciliation, Hedding knows what he is
talking about from experience. He added:
Yet oddly, it has been Evangelical Christians - today
the fastest-growing stream of Christianity worldwide - who have sought
to fill that prophetic role by facing up to the Church's tragic legacy
head-on. From our ranks, clergy and laymen alike have journeyed to Yad
Vashem to profess the Christian world's corporate guilt for the
church's dark history of anti-Semitism, including the Catholic Church,
and to repent for these great moral failings. This repentance
has been honest, sincere and without condition. We have stood in
humility, accepted the shame, and said "sorry", even though there is no
history in our 400 year-old movement of Evangelical involvement in the
sad chronicle of inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions and convert-or-die
scenarios that repeatedly took aim at the Jewish people.
As a convinced Catholic who loves the Church, I can only echo
Hedding's question: Why is it so hard for many Catholics to embrace
humility and repent, when countless Evangelicals who bear not even a
fraction of the historical burden of guilt that we Catholics carry
towards the Jewish people do this willingly and gladly?
 The absence of
identificational repentance was perhaps the reason why Benedict's
prayer at the Wailing Wall the following day also failed to make an
impression. Unlike John Paul's prayer nine years ago, which
specifically touched upon the Christian responsibility towards the
persecution of the Jewish people and attendant need for repentance,
Benedict's prayer was general and universalistic, asking the Lord to
"send your peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East, upon the
entire human family; stir the hearts of all who call upon your name, to
walk humbly in the path of justice and compassion." Again,
nothing wrong with these gentle words. A touching prayer, but
one that didn't address the deep wounds of the past.
Benedict then went on to Visit the Grand Rabbinate of Israel,
where he declared to the chief rabbis his desire for reconciliation
between Jews and Christians:
Today I have the opportunity to repeat that the
Catholic Church is irrevocably committed to the path chosen at the
Second Vatican Council for a genuine and lasting reconciliation between
Christians and Jews. As the Declaration Nostra Aetate makes clear, the
Church continues to value the spiritual patrimony common to Christians
and Jews and desires an ever deeper mutual understanding and respect
through biblical and theological studies as well as fraternal dialogues.
How unfortunate that the words most needed to further this
noble goal of reconciliation were never said.
Parting Words
If the many Catholic reactions to the Israeli disappointment
were an embarrassement, the one person who displayed the most humble
response to the critics was Benedict himself. Just before his
departure for Rome, at the Ben Gurion airport, the Holy Father showed
that he had listened to his critics with attention and respect.
Addressing President Shimon Peres, Benedict quoted St. Paul
to emphasize again the common roots of Israel and the Church,
before returning once again to the subject of the Holocaust in very
clear terms - though identificational repentance was still
absent:
Mr. President, you and I planted an olive tree at
your residence on the day that I arrived in Israel. The olive tree, as
you know, is an image used by Saint Paul to describe the very close
relations between Christians and Jews. Paul describes in his Letter to
the Romans how the Church of the Gentiles is like a wild olive shoot,
grafted onto the cultivated olive tree which is the People of the
Covenant (cf. 11:17-24). We are nourished from the same spiritual
roots. We meet as brothers, brothers who at times in our history have
had a tense relationship, but now are firmly committed to building
bridges of lasting friendship.
The ceremony at the Presidential Palace was followed by one
of the most solemn moments of my stay in Israel -- my visit to the
Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem to pay my respects to the victims of
the Shoah. There I also met some of the survivors. Those deeply moving
encounters brought back memories of my visit three years ago to the
death camp at Auschwitz, where so many Jews -- mothers, fathers,
husbands, wives, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, friends -- were
brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an
ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred. That appalling chapter of history
must never be forgotten or denied. On the contrary, those dark memories
should strengthen our determination to draw closer to one another as
branches of the same olive tree, nourished from the same roots and
united in brotherly love.
The Balance Sheet
During a press conference the Wednesday after the pope's
departure, Archbishop Fouad Twal, patriarch of Jerusalem, and
Archbishop Antonio Franco, apostolic nuncio, defined the trip as "more
than 90% successful." Certainly, Benedict came to the Holy
Land as a humble pilgrim and did his best to further peace and
reconciliation in a tense region. But one wonders by what
standard the two archbishops arrived at this rather triumphalistic
grade. I have a hard time following how Catholic clergymen
and commentators viewed the trip as such a great success, despite the
fact that the overwhelming local response ranged from sharp discontent
to cautious optimism, with the average feeling probably being one of disappointment with a touch of cynicism.
On the positive side, Pope Benedict strongly condemned
anti-Semitism and appealed that it be "universally recognized that the
State of Israel has the right to exist, and to enjoy peace and security
within internationally agreed borders." He tirelessly spoke
about the need for peace and reconciliation and the urgent necessity
of overcoming all forms of injustice and violence.
He came as "a friend of the Israelis" as much as a "friend of
the Palestinian people." Benedict also had strong words of
encouragement for the local Christians, and he pleaded for the healing
of divisions between them.
On the other hand, the one missing word, "sorry," turned what
could have been a giant step towards touching the heart of the Jewish
nation and dramatically furthering the reconciliation between Israel
and the Church into a moment that fell short of all
expectations and hopes. Humble identificational repentance
remained and still remains badly needed on the part of the Church and
her leaders, as an example for all Christians to come to grips with our
less than illustrious past with the Jewish people. Moreover,
the burning potato of the Muslim persecution of Christians in the Holy
Land was carefully avoided, and so was the issue of the current
paralysis of the Church's evangelistic mission of sharing the Gospel of
salvation to all people of the Holy Land (two topics that I will not
address here). The "elephant in the room" -
which no one really wants to notice - remains the troubling correlation
between the dwindling number of Christians in the Holy Land and refusal of the hierarchy
to evangelize. Is the calling of all people to conversion to the
Gospel not a crucial requirement to foster a thriving and growing
Christian community in the land of Jesus? And is a universal
invitation to a life-changing encounter with the Messiah of Israel not
the only real way to overcome prejudice and hatred and to bring
forgiveness, reconciliation, unity and love between all people in Israel and the Holy Land?
In light of all the pressure and sensitivities of this trip, the Holy
Father did his best. But perhaps 75% would be a fairer grade.
See Also:
Jerusalem Post: Benedict missed a critical
opportunity for reconciliation (May 13)
Haaretz: A Missed Opportunity (May
13)
Jerusalem Post: The Pope Meant Well
(May 13)
World Net Daily: Pope in Bethlehem: A missed
opportunity (May 13)
Jihad Watch: Pope Benedict's colossal error
(May 14)
Jerusalem Post: Pope's subdued style lends
lackluster finish to visit (May 14)
Jerusalem Post: From Benedict to Obama
(May 14)
Jerusalem Post: Religious Affairs: Leaps of
faith (May 14)
Politics Daily: How the Pope Fell Short as a
Guest (May 14)
AOL News: Pope faced high bar to please
Israelis (May 14)
Jerusalem Post: Pope: Jews were brutally
exterminated (May 15)
Ynet: Pope concludes Holy Land Visit
(May 15)
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