Don't crucify John Paul

By John Schochet

Two weeks ago, Pope John Paul II apologized for the sins of Catholics against Jews, women, indigenous peoples, and others. It's nice that he did that because Catholics have a long history of oppressing those groups. But I'm mostly interested in the pope's apology for sins against the Jews.

Jewish leaders, you see, had a wide range of reactions to the pope's comments. Some Jews, including myself, saw the apology as a step towards positive, constructive Jewish-Catholic relations. Unfortunately, others were less appreciative. In the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, Orthodox Rabbi Jacob Traub responded with an eloquent "Blaah."

Rabbi Traub explained that it was unfair to Jews for their apology to be lumped in with all the others and expressed his irritation that the Pope did not specifically apologize for the Vatican's silence during the Holocaust. His position was echoed by many other rabbis, commentators, and Jewish leaders. This assertion, however, is self-centered and historically inaccurate.

What exactly was the pope apologizing for? Well, the Catholic Church has done its share of oppressing. In the Middle Ages, Jews and heretics made nice targets because they were pretty much the only non-Catholics around. Later, the Church took its turn abusing Protestants, Native Americans, Asians, Africans, and leftists. It long supported reactionary politics in many nations. And more to the point, the Vatican remained inexcusably silent regarding Nazi atrocities during World War II.

But today's Church is different. It holds progressive views, putting aside homosexuality, abortion, and women's ordination. The pope, trying to distance the Church from its past injustices, seems to genuinely regret many aspects of the Catholic legacy and wants to make amends. That view spawned the recent apology along with other gestures, such as establishing relations with Israel.

At Mass on Sun., Mar. 12, John Paul II stated: "We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer. We wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the covenant."

Granted, this statement does not specifically mention the Holocaust, and it refers to the behavior of Catholics rather than to that of the Catholic Church—but what would saying otherwise have accomplished? Had the Pope singled out the Holocaust, he would have lessened the importance of every other wrong the Church committed against Jews.

In the 11th century, crusading knights killed or converted most Jews in the Rhine Valley at the pope's behest. Later, after centuries of periodic massacres, both France and England expelled their Jews. In the 15th century, the Church hierarchy killed, converted, or expelled every Jew in Spain.

The Holocaust is, in terms of blame the Catholic Church deserves, at most equal in scale to past Church atrocities. The Holocaust was instigated by Nazi Germany and carried out with the cooperation of many ordinary Europeans: Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and non-religious. The Vatican didn't do anything to stop it, but then again, neither did France or the United States. And it would be an injustice to forget that convents and monasteries hid thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis.

While the Church should have taken action to stop the Nazis, was there really anything the Vatican could have done? It exists in a country that was an Axis power, surrounded by Nazi and Fascist soldiers. It doesn't exactly deserve an award for moral courage, but it's hard to blame the Vatican for collaborating with the Nazis specifically when all of Western Europe was doing so, and it's hard to criticize the Church for not stopping the Holocaust when the United States could have done so and refused.

It's easy for us Jews, constantly reminded to "never forget," to cry foul any time we feel that the Holocaust is not being given fair coverage. In this case, it is. We must keep perspective and understand that the Church bears far more responsibility for Medieval atrocities committed against Jews than it does for the modern horrors of the Nazis, and that, despite our occasionally self-centered nature, we are not the only people historically wronged by Catholics.

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