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(RNS) — In his 27 years as head of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II led a revolution within the relations between the church and the Jewish folks. Elected in 1978, he grew to become the primary pope to go to a synagogue when he went to the Nice Synagogue in Rome. He was the primary to go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest web site. He established diplomatic relations with the state of Israel. He coined the time period “beloved elder brothers” in reference to the Jews. He validated God’s covenant with Moses and the Jewish folks at Mount Sinai as everlasting and eternal.
A key theological adviser to John Paul by these transformative steps was the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. After Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005, he carried on this reconciliation course of as Benedict XVI.
Like Isaac, who retraced his father Abraham’s footsteps in keeping with the Torah’s E-book of Genesis, Benedict additionally visited the Nice Synagogue in Rome and prayed on the Western Wall, reconfirming the significance of John Paul’s outreach whereas normalizing these journeys as a part of the evolving cloth of Catholic-Jewish relations.
However Benedict did greater than retrace his predecessor’s steps; in some methods, he walked even additional. He grew to become the primary pope to go to synagogues in New York Metropolis and Cologne. As the primary German pope, and an eyewitness to the Holocaust, he made a sequence of defining statements in opposition to antisemitism and Holocaust deniers.
As with every evolving relationship, there have been missteps that raised nice concern for Jews and Catholics alike. Maybe probably the most controversial was his choice to liberalize using the pre-Vatican II 1962 Latin liturgy, which incorporates the anti-Jewish Good Friday prayer. His rewritten Good Friday prayer for that liturgy, titled “For the Conversion of the Jews,” continues to be a problem that wants decision.
Additionally sparking worldwide response was Benedict’s choice to elevate the excommunication of 4 bishops from an antisemitic schismatic group.
On the identical time, Benedict issued profound constructive theological and historic statements about Judaism. Regardless of his Good Friday prayer, he stated the Catholic Church ought to cease attempting to transform Jews.
He reinterpreted problematic passages within the Gospels of Matthew and John, dismissing destructive photographs and false expenses in opposition to the Jewish folks. He’s the primary pope to cite from “Pirke Avot,” the traditional rabbinic textual content often called “The Ethics of the Fathers,” utilizing it as a mannequin for Catholics.
When Benedict shocked the world in February 2013 by saying his resignation, Jews questioned what would occur to Catholic-Jewish dialogue. Many expressed concern that the following pope would have little understanding of Catholic-Jewish relations, and the connection would wither.
However to the good shock of the Jewish group and the world at giant, the cardinals made historical past by electing the primary pope from South America and the primary Jesuit pope. Because it turned out, Francis had deep friendships with Jews and rabbis in Argentina. Certainly, one in all his closest buddies is a rabbi, with whom he wrote a e-book on Catholic-Jewish relations.
But it surely shouldn’t be forgotten how a lot Benedict helped to formulate, enshrine and normalize the historic constructive modifications in relations that Catholics and Jews expertise at the moment.
(Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg, the Simon Wiesenthal Heart’s director of United Nations relations and strategic partnerships and former nationwide director of interfaith affairs on the Anti-Defamation League, met with Benedict 4 occasions. The views expressed on this commentary don’t replicate these of Faith Information Service.)
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