News- Vatican

Searching for the Roots of Anti-Semitism

The Vatican had planned a theoretical discussion among theologians, but the public attention generated by the symposium was concentrated almost exclusively on the Holocaust.

The Nazi regime was a political pheonomenon, which drew its strength from pagan ideology; it would not be a proper subject for the symposium.

"Christians who give in to anti-Judaism offend God and the Church."

When the Vatican announced plans for a three-day symposium at the end of October to explore "the Christian origins of anti-Semitism," reporters in Rome and around the world quickly leapt to a series of unwarranted conclusions. The meeting would focus on the Holocaust, they said, and perhaps the Holy See would apologize for its failure to stop the Nazi genocide--just as the French bishops had recently apologized for their failure to speak out more forcefully during World War II.

Again and again, the organizers of the Vatican symposium warned that the journalists had misconstrued the purpose of the event. The discussion was to be a fairly abstract exchange among theologians, they explained; it would not address specific historical issues such as the Holocaust. The symposium was a response to the call from Pope John Paul II for an "examination of conscience" within the Church. Father Georges Cottier, OP, secretary to the theological commission which was hosting the event, explained that the goal was to isolate "erroneous teachings on the New Testament" which might have "served as a pretext for hostility" against the Jewish faith.

Father Cottier went so far as to suggest that it might be more accurate to say that the symposium would examine "anti-Judaism" rather than "anti-Semitism." He explained that "anti-Semitism" is a form of racial bias, which might be influenced by a number of historical and political factors; the Vatican symposium, he stressed, would concentrate exclusively on religious and theological questions. Responding directly to the question that seemed to be on every journalist's mind, he observed that the Nazi regime was a political pheonomenon, which drew its strength from pagan ideology; it would not be a proper subject for the symposium.

Father Cottier also parried a complaint that Jewish scholars had not been invited to participate in the conference by saying that this criticism, too, indicated a fundamental misunderstanding of the event. (Several Protestant and Orthodox scholars had been among the list of participants.) Since the symposium was not only an exercise in Christian theology but also an "examination of conscience" for Christians, he reasoned, it was only logical that Christians alone should lead the effort.

At a private audience on October 31, Pope John Paul greeted the scholars participating in the event, thanking them in advance for "the great scientific rigor" they were bringing to the topic. "The object of your symposium," he observed, "is the correct theological interpretation of the relations between the Church of Christ and the Jewish people."

"Anti-Semitism has no justification, and should be absolutely condemned," the Holy Father said. But he took pains to draw distinctions between the historical influences which promoted the rise of anti-Semitism and the formal teachings of the Catholic Church. "In the Christian world--I do not say in the Church itself--erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and their alleged culpability have circulated for too long, engendering sentiments of hostility toward this people," the Pope said.

John Paul, too, said that these sentiments combined with pagan themes to fuel the racism that racked Europe under the Nazi regime. It would be a distortion of the historical record to suggest that the Nazi racial ideology was based on Christianity, he argued, since "the Church firmly condemns all forms of genocide, as well as the racist theories which inspire them and give them a pretense of justification." He recalled the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, promulgated by Pope Pius XI in 1938, and also Summi Pontificatus, by Pope XII in 1939. The latter encyclical, he pointed out, invoked the law of human solidarity and charity towards all people in a clear effort to stifle the impulses toward racial hatred.

In his own meditation on the role of the Jewish people, the Pope recalled how the Hebrews emerged from a pagan world, as the chosen instrument of God's plan for salvation. "These people were brought together and led by Yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth," he said. "Their existence, then, is not a pure fact of nature, nor even of culture in the sense in which human culture is the creation of the resources proper to human nature. This is a supernatural fact." To ignore that fact, he said, would be lose all understanding of the Old Testament, "without which the New Testament itself is stripped of its meaning."

To no one's surprise, the Vatican symposium ended with a condemnation of anti-Semitism. "Christians who give in to anti-Judaism offend God and the Church," the conference proclaimed in a summary statement.

"We have attempted to study the mystery of Israel in the light of the mystery of the Church and our own identity, in the conviction that 'the truth will set you free,'" the conference participants explained. They also expressed the hope that "the errors and omissions of the past need not be repeated in the future."

This conference, the Vatican cautioned once again, had not been designed to formulate any ground-breaking statements, despite the widespread public speculation. Rather, it was "a step along a long road," in preparation for the celebration of the Jubilee.

But as the scholars wrapped up their discussions and headed home, the stories circulating in the mass media were not much different from those which had first greeted the announcement of the Vatican symposium. Reporters still speculated that the Vatican would soon issue a new document on the overall role of the Church, and in particular Pope Pius XII, during the Holocaust. Several Jewish leaders expressed regret that the Vatican had not offered an explicit apology for the treatment of Jews by Christians through the centuries..

In light of the repeated clarifications offered by Vatican sources before, during, and after the symposium, such demands seemed almost deliberately to miss the point. "Forgiveness has been asked repeatedly--for the past and even for recent times," the Holy Father had told reporters on October 2. "It is interesting that it is always the Pope, and the Catholic Church, who ask for forgiveness--while others remain silent."

This story was prepared from daily reports put out by the news agency I Media in Rome.

Scholar cites "calumny" against Pius XII

Debunks reports of a suppressed encyclical

The "secret encyclical" was really just a preliminary draft, written by one American priest, never approved by any higher authority, and arguably not worthy of publication.

Father Pierre Blet, the sole survivor among four Jesuit priests appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1964 to study the secret Vatican archives for information on the Church's role in World War II, believes that Pope Pius XII has been the victim of "calumny." Father Blet, the author of a recent book on the actions which Pius XII took during the war, made that remark in an October interview with the Italian daily Avvenire.

"Modern historians pass in silence over the role of the Pope played in international relations, especially during the period leading up to the war and during the war itself," the Jesuit scholar said. "Pius XII--through his public discourses, his appeals to leaders and to governments, and his secret diplomacy--was engaged more than any other individual in the effort to bring an the war and rebuild the peace." He pointed out that, as a matter of public record, Pius XII called for a peace conference involving Italy, France, England, Germany, and Poland in 1939, in a last-minute bid to avert bloodshed.

Father Blet also flatly rejected the accusations that Pius XII harbored some personal sympathies for the Nazi regime. "That is false," he said. "The documents of the foreign office proves that Pius XII was in contact with the German generals who sought to overthrow Hitler." He pointed out that an international campaign to support those generals foundered when Great Britain failed to uphold its promises. He also pointed to another document, showing that in 1940 the Pope secretly informed the French and British ambassadors about the dates planned for a German offensive in the Ardennes. "This was information of capital importance, which Pius XII had no hesitation in passing along," he said.

While Pope Pius XII has been criticized for maintaining his silence in the face of the evidence of the Nazi Holocaust, Father Blet said that the Pope believed that a public denunciation would merely increase the suffering of those living under Nazi control. He pointed out that the leaders of the Red Cross had reached exactly the same conclusion. And those fears were far from irrational, he continued, pointing out that when Catholic leaders did condemn the Nazi regime, Hitler invariably struck back. Robert Kempner, the American who served as deputy chief of the Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal, once wrote: "All the arguments and writings eventually used by the Catholic Church against Hitler only amounted to suicide; the execution of Jews was followed by that of Catholic priests."

Father Blet used the term "calumny" in reference to complaints that Pius XII failed to help Jewish refugees. He pointed out that archives were full of evidence that the Jewish community had received enormous help from the Holy See, and there were multiple expressions of thanks from Jews who were helped. In fact the Pope used his own personal funds to ransom Jews from Nazis, while papal legates in Croatia, Hungary, and Romania stopped deportations on direct orders from the Pontiff.

Finally, asked to comment on rumors that Pope Pius XII halted work on an encyclical which had been planned by his predecessor in order to condemn anti- Semitism, the Jesuit priest said that public comments on that score have been grotesquely misleading. It is true, he conceded, that Pope Pius XI had planned an encyclical--on the general question of racism, with the topic of anti-Semitism to be covered among many others. Father John LaFarge, a Jesuit specialist on the topic who was working in Rome at the time, was charged with the preparation of a first draft.

"I have had the opportunity to read that manuscript," reported Father Blet. "It is clear that the encyclical was not in the proper focus." The LaFarge draft, he said, did indeed condemn anti-Semitism, but it also cautioned that the Church had reason to be wary of Jewish influence. While Pope Pius XII never followed through on the proposed encyclical, Father Blet concludes, "I cannot dare to imagine what anyone would say today if Pius XII had given his approval to such a text."

While some popular accounts have referred to a "secret encyclical" which Pope Pius XII suppressed, Father Blet bought the reality into sharp focus. In fact, this was not an encyclical written or even approved by Pope Pius XI; it was a preliminary draft, written by one American priest, never approved by any higher authority, and arguably not worthy of publication.

Father Blet was part of a scholarly team commissioned by Pope Paul VI to study the Vatican archives, and put together a balanced exposition of the role played by the Holy See. From 1965 to 1982, the results of that task were published in Rome, in a series of 12 volumes. The Jesuit scholar suggested that critics of the Church who have called for the opening of the "secret archives" could profit from researching the material available in those volumes rather than persisting in their complaints.