The Jews, the Vatican, and the Pope :Ruth King
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/the-jews-the-vatican-and-the-pope-ruth-king.html
On March 23, 2000, Pope John Paul II spoke the following words at Yad Vashem:
“As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place. The Church rejects racism in any form as a denial of the image of the Creator inherent in every human being (cf. Gen 1:26).
“In this place of solemn remembrance, I fervently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people suffered in the twentieth century will lead to a new relationship between Christians and Jews. Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord, and look to Abraham as our common father in faith (cf. We Remember, V).”
Six years later, in May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI, a native of Germany who had directly experienced the Nazi years, speaking at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, invoked the memory of John Paul II.
Walking alone, the 79-year-old pontiff, with head bowed said:
“To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man is almost impossible — and it is particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a Pope from Germany.
“By destroying Israel, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful.”
He added “Why, Lord did you remain silent?”
But three years later, in 2009, at Yad Vashem, Pope Benedict did not speak of Nazis and the concentration camps, instead issuing vague evocations of the dead. Of the Holocaust he said “Similarly, she [the Church] draws close to all those who today are subjected to persecution on account of race, color, condition of life or religion.”
The uproar was instant and eclipsed the comfort and reconciliation that Jews and Catholics had found in the Pope’s previous message in Auschwitz. The Pope was harshly criticized in an editorial in the German paper Der Spiegel:
“The pope never mentioned the culprits, or the German words engraved into the floor of the Hall of Remembrance at his feet: Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Majdanek, Theresienstadt. He said nothing about the church’s position on the Holocaust, or about its history of anti-Semitism, which made the Shoah possible in the first place. Instead, he confined himself to mentioning the “deep compassion” of the Catholic Church for “the victims.”
Frankly, whatever the intention, there was a hint of inappropriate moral equivalence.
And now Pope Francis, who hails from Argentina, has ignited uproar.
On May 13 2015, The Vatican officially recognized the “State of Palestine”- a fictional state with no defined or legitimate borders, whose leaders openly call for the destruction of Israel by surrender of territory crucial to its survival and “the right of return” which would demographically swamp the Jewish state. To add injury to insult, the Pope had a super friendly meeting with Mahmoud Abbas on whom he bestowed a large bronze medallion representing the angel of peace, one of his customary gifts to visiting presidents.
Hmm. Did the Pope not know or care that the recipient of the coveted medallion wrote a published thesis at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow entitled The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism? In the book, Abbas argues that the Jewish victims of the Holocaust were actually the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot aimed to fuel vengeance against Jews and to produce their mass extermination.
And why does he appease tyrants like Raul Castro whose regime has imprisoned and tortured innocent civilians for simple dissent?
There is a real mystery here.
Why would the Pope seek to accommodate those who assault the church and its teachings? Who has insulted Catholics more than those who openly lobby for abortion, an act that Catholics consider murder? Who makes Roe v. Wade a litmus test for appointments to the highest court? Who finds pedophiles under every pew without regard to the thousands of missionaries and clergy who have devoted themselves to bringing help and hope to victims throughout the world? Who has removed the Ten Commandments from all public buildings except the United States Supreme Court, where it remains sculpted in stone? Who has opposed public funding for Catholic schools even in neighborhoods where they are the only haven for disadvantaged youth? Who has attempted to remove religion from all public life, even from the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States?
Why it is those very people who also champion the false narrative of the so-called “Palestinians”–the very same folks that draw moral equivalence between Israel and its tormentors. The very same folks that give Palestinian Arab credibility as victims at the expense of Israel’s survival.
Why does the Pope champion a cause that is inimical to Christians? Has he seen the processions to the Stations of the Cross in the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which are protected with dignity and respect by the Israeli police and defense forces? Has he visited and rejoiced in Nazareth where the Church of the Annunciation is scrupulously respected and protected by the State of Israel? Has he read Matthew 4:13, whence Jesus went to Capernaum in the Galilee where he gathered his first disciples? Has he visited Abu Ghosh on the highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where the ancient Benedictine Monastery was restored and is maintained by the Israeli government? Has he seen The Church of Notre Dame -Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant where a large statue of the Virgin Mary is visible from every direction in the complex?
The cradle of Christianity is in Israel, in Bethlehem, in Nazareth and in Jerusalem. Only Israel….repeat….only Israel…has maintained uninterrupted access and updated and restored Christian shrines and churches. The Muslim Arabs have defaced, destroyed and defiled them as they have systematically oppressed Christians in all Arab lands.
Who sees all Christians and Jews as infidels whose places of worship and shrines must be desecrated and destroyed? Radical Muslim Arabs.
Israel and the Catholics share a past and a destiny. The Pope should not encourage Israel’s enemies.
To be fair, much of the criticism of the Pope is pure hypocrisy, coming from a gaggle of Jewish appeasers who call Abbas a “partner for peace” and advocate the suicidal two state solution that would place a terrorist, jihad-driven state at Israel’s throat.
Popes come and go. Some are better than others. The vast majority of Catholics are supporters of Israel. The Vatican will survive. And Israel will survive both foolish and wise Popes.
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