Pope John Paul II (1978 – 2005) was the leader of the Catholic Church and I am a rabbi. His fundamental beliefs were completely foreign to the religion I follow. Yet, I must confess that when I finally learnt that the Pope had passed away I felt a sense of tremendous loss. Is it correct for a Jew to mourn the death of a leader of the Catholic Church? The answer to me is yes, it is not only legitimate but it is eminently fitting. To members of other faiths the Papal office has no inherent sanctity or holiness. To us a Pope is not a Godly individual by virtue of his position alone. No, I am not mourning the death of a great religious leader: there is a different reason.
Throughout history some Christians have used the New Testament to propagate anti-Semitism and violence towards Jews. Indeed there are passages in the New Testament that seem to accuse the Jews of killing Jesus[1]. The Jews are also said to belong to the synagogue of Satan[2] and have descended from the devil[3]. These passages amongst others were used by successive Popes to oppress Jews. The Crusades of 1095-9 which led to the murder of thousands of Jews in the Rhineland were prompted by a speech delivered by Pope Urban II (1088 – 1099). In 1236 Pope Gregory IX’s (1227 – 1241) condemnation of Judaism’s most important legal work, the Talmud, led to the burning of Jewish books and the severe oppression of Jews. Subsequently there were Popes who showed a limited amount of friendship to the Jews. However, in May 1555 Cardinal Caraffa – the Grand Inquisitor and scourge of the Jews – became Pope Paul IV (1555 – 1559) and almost immediately the Jews living in Papal States were segregated into ghettos. In fact it was Pope Paul IV who, on the malarial left bank of the Tiber River, created the first Jewish ghetto known to history[4]. His successor Pope Pius V (1559 – 1572) expelled many Jewish communities from their cities some of whose roots dated back to antiquity[5].
In 1814 Pope Pius VII (1800 – 1823) returned from exile determined to re-establish the ecclesiastical regime down to the finest detail. The inquisition was re-established and Jews were sent back into ghettos and obligated to wear Jew-badges and attend conversionary sermons once a month. Pope Pious VII’s successor Pope Leo XII (1823 – 1829) went even further; he encouraged forced baptism and turned a blind eye to the kidnapping of Jewish children who were to be brought up as Christians[6]. Finally Pope Pius XII's (1939 – 1958) actions and inactions during the Holocaust are well documented. Anti-Semitism was thus clearly deeply rooted not only in Catholicism as a whole but in the Papacy itself[7].
Pope Paul VI (1963 – 1978) tried to change this in October 1965. Nostra Aetate (also known as Vatican Two) ushered in a new chapter in relations between Catholics and other faiths especially the Jews. In the Nostra Aetate friendly and peace loving passages from the New Testament are expanded and focused upon. Passages recognizing Jesus’ Jewish heritage[8] and stressing the bond between the Jews and God[9] are used to build harmonious relations with the Jews – indeed a momentous occasion for Jewish – Catholic relations. It was this Pope, John Paul II, who did the most to repair relationships between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people. He often referred to the idea that Jews are considered like cultivated olive branches whereas the gentiles are likened to wild olive branches[10]. Pope John Paul II decided to focus on and make use of passages in the New Testament that spoke well of the Jews and that bodes well for inter-faith relations. In March 2000 he begged forgiveness on behalf of the Catholic Church for all its wrongdoings against the Jews and in the same month he visited Israel and placed a letter in the western wall also beseeching forgiveness.
It should also be noted that Pope John Paul II’s visit to a Jewish run state in the Holy Land demonstrates the depth of genuine respect he had for the Jews. While Popes of the past were throwing Jews out of their homes Pope John Paul II was defending the right of the Jewish people to their own homeland.
The scriptures Pope John Paul II read were the same scriptures read by Pope Urban II, Pope Gregory IX and other anti-Semitic Popes. The difference is not in the scriptures, it is in the person who reads and interprets them. A peace loving, kind, just and honest human being will see peace, justice and love written in the scriptures. Conversely, a wicked, bloodthirsty and hateful individual will interpret the scriptures as a licence to oppress and violate the rights of others. Interpretations of Holy Scriptures tell us more about the individuals interpreting them than about the scriptures themselves. From the way he interpreted his scriptures it is clear that Pope John Paul was a righteous, peace loving, and moral person.
I consider Pope John Paul II to be one of the righteous of the nations – a person who according to the Jewish religion has a special place in the world-to-come[11]. His passing marks the loss to the world of a man of tremendous moral courage and righteousness and we should all – members of every faith – mourn the death of this giant.
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