Vatican Urges Holocaust Repentance
The Vatican, in a major document on the Holocaust, urged Roman Catholics Monday to repent for past errors but absolved wartime Pope Pius XII of charges he turned a blind eye to the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews.
The long-awaited 14-page document, entitled "We Remember, a Reflection on the Shoah (Holocaust)," decried the "unspeakable tragedy...of the killing of millions of Jews" and spoke of the "moral imperative" Christians should feel to ensure it never happens again.
"This is more than an apology...this is an act of repentance...since as members of the Church we are linked to the sins as well as to the merits of all her children," said Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, whose Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews produced the work.
"We like, of course, to speak of the saints and take joy in the fact that there are people like Mother Teresa in our Church but we also have to be realistic and say that there are many people today, as at any stage in any church, in any community, who fall very far short," he told a news conference.
In a preface, the pope, who has made improving relations with Jews a cornerstone of his papacy, expressed hope that the document "will indeed help to heal the wounds of past misunderstandings and injustices." It seems unlikely that this document will do that.
Hours before the document's release, Israel's chief rabbi expressed dismay after being told it would only refer in general terms to the church's attitude to the persecution.
Chief Rabbi Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor, demanded an "explicit apology for the shameful attitude of the pope at the time."
Instead, the document defended Pius XII for using his first encyclical, in 1939, to warn "against theories which denied the unity of the human race and against the deification of the State," and which could all lead to a real "`hour of darkness."'
The document praised the "wisdom of Pius XII's diplomacy," saying it had been acknowledged several times by Jewish groups. It quoted Golda Meir, the former Israeli prime minister, as saying in 1958 at Pius' death that he raised his voice "when fearful martyrdom came to our people."
Some 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust, most of them murdered in gas chambers or killed of deprivation in concentration camps as part of Hitler's plan to exterminate Jews.
The document also condemned other mass killings this century, mentioning Armenians, Gypsies, Cambodians and victims in the former Soviet Union among others.
Last fall, French bishops apologized for their silence during the deportation of Jews, and German bishops have said that the church did not do enough to fight Nazism and condemn the Holocaust.
The Vatican in 1993 agreed to have diplomatic ties with Israel, a landmark in John Paul's papacy.
The last Vatican document of landmark proportions on Jewish relations was 1965 statement that came out of the Second Vatican Council and said the Jews cannot be collectively blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus.
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