The Latest in Vatican Revisionism
The head of the Catholic Church on Sunday visited Auschwitz, a site synonymous in most minds with the near-extermination of European Jewry, to deny the existence of anti-Semitism. While standing literally in the shadow of the ovens, the former member of the Hitler Youth asserted first that, in the face of the Holocaust's horror, only one response is possible, that of "dread silence-- a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God." Taking care to avoid ascribing any responsibility for the Holocaust to either the Church or the German people, Josef Ratzinger's query, "[w]hy, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate this?" not only reinforces the obedient believer's duty to be silent in the face of earthly corruption, but also neatly removes human agency from the equation. According to Ratzinger's formulation, the Holocaust was a problem with God, not with humans.
The Pope's second and far more insidious claim is that the Nazi's goal was not so much to kill Jews, but to "tear up the taproot of the Christian faith," to "kill the God called Abraham, who spoke in Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide to mankind," and to prove "that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone." Such asinine and offensive arguments go unchallenged by either the Times or the Post. For Ian Fisher of the Times, the Pope's "visit thus marked one more milestone of reckoning,"
UPDATE: The Anti-Defamation League protests the Pope's omissions here.
The Pope's second and far more insidious claim is that the Nazi's goal was not so much to kill Jews, but to "tear up the taproot of the Christian faith," to "kill the God called Abraham, who spoke in Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide to mankind," and to prove "that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone." Such asinine and offensive arguments go unchallenged by either the Times or the Post. For Ian Fisher of the Times, the Pope's "visit thus marked one more milestone of reckoning,"
And the images, beamed around the world, were striking: the pope in pristine white walking alone under the infamous iron lie promising freedom through work; a kiss on the cheek to a Jewish survivor; dark rain that gave way to sun and then, somehow, a rainbow as he finished prayers.Craig Whitlock's story in the Post blithely quotes Ratzinger as saying that "[t]o speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible." But it is never "almost impossible" to raise your voice against horror, all that is necessary is that you do it (a choice the Vatican declined to make during the war) and second, those "unprecedented mass crimes" were not "committed against God and man," they were committed against Jews.
UPDATE: The Anti-Defamation League protests the Pope's omissions here.
posted by DavidB @ 5/28/2006 01:29:00 pm
2 Comments:
At 11:03 am,
Anonymous said…
Thank you, David.
I was also very troubled by Ratzinger's shying away from (personal, Natzi, German) responsibility.
I find it interesting that prior to his papacy he was head of the Office of the Inquisition (the old name for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). His job was to stomp out heresy and Ratzinger was widely known/criticized within Catholicism for frequent condemnation of those practicing Liberation Theology. Liberation theology, to summaraize it quickly, is to act on one's faith by creating the Kingdom of God here, today. It is to work for peace and justice now; it is to assist those who are disempowered; it is to speak and love as radically as Jesus did.
It's nice that Ratzinger is a smart theologian. It's nice that he likes Jesus. But I believe it is unconscionable for him to continue to separate Faith from Action. People of God must hold themselves up to high standards: we must put down our defenses to love our neighbors, we must work for justice, and we must defend the disempowered. We must take responsibility for when we turn a blind eye to suffering. And although the theological questions are important, I wish this leader was more of a humanist than a theoretical theist in the face of such tragedy.
TKerres
At 11:46 am,
DavidB said…
That was so beautifully expressed; thank you. I'm not only troubled by Ratzinger's comments as a Jew, but as a citizen and media consumer I'm troubled by the free pass he seems to be getting from the media. Is it that these reporters are simply not smart enough to see that this Pope has just publicly absolved Christians of any responsibility for the Holocaust, or do they not care?
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