(영어번역)At Israel's Holocaust Memorial, Many Find the Pope's Silence Deafening(09.05.12)Few question Pope Benedict XVI's good will, nor the eloquence of hisprose. But for the second time in three years, the Pope has delivered ahighly anticipated discourse on the Holocaust that was moving but, byits silence on specific subjects, missed an opportunity of historicproportions.
Welcomed at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial early Monday evening,Benedict spoke powerfully of the victims, and called on humanity neverto forget the attempt to exterminate the Jews as a way "to ensure thathatred will never reign in the hearts of men again." But, in a highlyunusual criticism of an honored guest's remarks, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau,chairman of the Yad Vashem council, told Israeli television that thoughthe speech was moving, "Something was missing. There was no mention ofthe Germans or the Nazis who participated in the butchery, nor a wordof regret." Unlike John Paul II's speech here in 2000, Benedict alsochose not to speak specifically of Christianity's role in anti-Semitismover the centuries. (See pictures of the Pope on his visit to the Holy Land.)
Avner Shalev, the chairman of the memorial, also seemed pained bythe Pope's decision not to cite the origins of the Holocaust, neitherits roots in anti-Semitism nor the place where it was launched. "Thisis a place where we speak of the importance of memory," Shalev toldreporters after the ceremony. "To not specifically mention theperpetrators, the murderers... He missed that point." Shalev alsowondered why the German-born Pope, who was an unwilling conscript intothe Hitler Youth, chose to offer no reflections of his personalexperience. (The Pope had condemned anti-Semitism during his remarks atBen Gurion airport earlier Monday, when he'd arrived from Jordan aspart of his eight-day Middle East trip.) (See historic pictures from Kristallnacht.)
Several Holocaust survivors present said it was not their place topick apart the Pope's remarks, but there was not the resoundinggratitude that John Paul II received upon his visit in 2000. "It wasOK. I'm satisfied," said Ed Mosberg, a Krakow native and New Jerseyresident whose parents and two sisters were killed by the Nazis. "It'simportant that he came."
This was the second time Benedict, 82, has gotten decidedly mixedreviews on his handling of a Holocaust-related visit. He had visitedthe Auschwitz concentration camp in 2006 and poignantly asked, "Wherewas God?" when the Nazis carried out Hitler's Final Solution. But thesame speech hit several sour notes in the ears of Jewish leaders, asthe Pope failed to cite anti-Semitism as a cause of the genocide.Instead, he wondered if Christianity wasn't ultimately Hitler's finaltarget, and summarily disposed of the complicated moral question ofGerman society's "collective responsibility" by blaming the systematicextermination of millions of Jews and other innocents on the deeds of a"ring of criminals." The Bavarian native concluded: "Our people wasused and abused as an instrument of [the Nazis] thirst for destructionand power."(Read a story about the Pope's prayer at Auschwitz.)
Sergio Minerbi, a former Israeli ambassador and scholar onIsraeli-Vactian affairs, was given shelter from the Nazis in an ItalianCatholic Boys School during the war. But Minerbi, who has met Benedictseveral times when he was still a cardinal, says the Pope wants to"Christianize the Holocaust." Minerbi concludes: "There's a long way togo before the Vatican and the Jews establish friendly relations." (See pictures of Hitler's rise to power.)
The humble and quiet presence of the aging pontiff at Yad Vashem wasitself an attempt to improve those relations. The ties had frayedearlier this year after Benedict lifted the excommunication of fourultra-traditionalist Bishops, including one who denies the widelyaccepted facts about what happened in Nazi Germany. The Pope, who hassince said that the Bishop has no standing in the Church so long as hedoesn't change his stance on the events of World War II, denounced anywho deny the events of the Holocaust.
Taken on face value, however, Benedict's brief remarks wereeloquent, a kind of prayerful meditation about how the names of thosemurdered renders them nonetheless inextinguishable from the eternalbook of human history. "They lost their lives but they will never losetheir names," the Pope said, speaking in his softly accented English."These are indelibly etched in the hearts of their loved ones, theirsurviving fellow prisoners, and all those determined never to allowsuch an atrocity to disgrace mankind again." The Pope clearly graspsthe scope and horror of the Holocaust. He added this chillingcontemplation on the names of the children who died in the Holocaust:"I can only imagine the joyful expectation of their parents as theyanxiously awaited the birth of their children. What name shall we givethis child? What is to become of him or her? Who could have imaginedthat they would be condemned to such a deplorable fate."
Vatican observers make a point to not constantly compare Benedict tohis predecessor: two different men facing two different challenges.Still, their biographies are linked in a way that gave the German Popea unique chance to complete the legacy of his Polish predecessor inhelping to reconcile the 20th century Christian Europe that failed tosave its Jews from near annihilation. Instead, eloquent and heartfeltas he may have been, Benedict came to Israel's Holocaust memorial andspoke neither as a man of his times nor his place. With reporting by Aaron J. Klein/Jerusalem
(영어번역)At Israel's Holocaust Memorial, Many Find the Pope's Silence Deafening(09.05.12)
