In a development sure to be welcomed by the Jewish community, Pope Benedict has added a stop during his New York leg and will visit the Park East synagogue, long headed by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor and champion of interreligious dialogue. The visit to the synagogue will take place on the afternoon of April 18, the day Benedict arrives in New York. The event will likely go a ways towards easing Benedict's often problematic relationship with the Jewish community. Benedict's election was welcomed by the Jewish community, which rightly saw Joseph Ratzinger's brief service as a teenager in a German anti-aircraft battery and his enrollment in the Hitler Youth (he attended one meeting, when he was 14) as non-issues. But Benedict has been surprisingly flat-footed when it comes to engaging the Jewish community as Pope. His address at Auschwitz during a 2006 trip to Poland barely mentioned the Holocaust, and said nothing of anti-Semitism. And he has done little to use his unique view and experience of European history and German history to help battle a resurgent anti-Semitism. He also reinstituted a controversial Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews that had been the spark and symbol of anti-Jewish violence for centuries, and later released an edited version that did not assuage many in the Jewish community.
Initial plans for Benedict's visit were for a visit with Jewish groups in New York on Friday evening, yet did not take into account that the sabbath begins Friday at sundown. Moreover, the first night of Passover is the following night, Saturday evening. Until now, Benedict was to meet with Jewish leaders only in Washington, in a rather pro forma meetign with leaders of other faiths. That didn't please Jewish leaders much, and this development seems like a way to address the problem.
Read more from the New York Times site.
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David, given all the gaffes the Pope has made with Jews, I'm interested to know what makes you optimistic ("sure to be welcomed") about his synagogue visit?
Benedict strikes me as a pretty thick-skinned personality whose statements about non-Catholics that are, at core, pretty ham-handed.
Are the Catholic survey results posted in real time? I took it and want to know how I stack up!
My take is that Jews want to have good relations with the Vatican and all Catholics not just because of the terrible history that went before but 1) because of so much that has been gained, and which needs to be protected; and 2) because all the world, not just the Middle East, is a "dangerous neighborhood" today and the Jewish community relies on an ally like the Catholic Church.
Good relations with Catholicism is also an entry point to dialogues with other Christians who are not quite as amenable to interreligious dialogue, except at the point of a sermon.
In short, Judaism has everything to gain by good relations with the Church, and everything to lose if they go south.
If I read you right, you're saying that the Jews will welcome the Pope because they can't afford to alienate the Church, even when the Pope marginalizes Jews (as at Auschwitz) and offends them (as in the revival of the conversion prayer on Good Friday).
Isn't that awfully close to saying that the Jews should be grateful that Pope Benedict (who will certainly not welcome them as "our elder brothers" like John Paul II) has condescended to meet with them at all?
I'm afraid my own sense is that if this meeting goes well, it will be because of Jewish forbearance, not because of any particular knack the Pope has for building bridges with non-Catholics.
Though, of course, I am always in hopes of being proved wrong, and am enjoying reading your blog.
True, the whole dynamic is too close to casting the Jewish community in the position of supplicants grateful for the pope's attentions. That is a problem, and a real concern, I think. On the other hand, it is the dynamic with almost everyone vis-a-vis the pope, most popes. They come to him, follow his script. Look at the Islamic scholars who responded after Regensburg. It's a disturbing power dynamic, but one so taken for granted that if anyone dare disrupt it by making a request (demand!) of the pope, they are seen as disrespectful.
The call of Jesus for evangelization of the world suffered a setback at the hands of post-VCII ecumenical efforts that belie the de fide doctrine: extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. Pope Benedict XVI is being wrongly accused of trying to reverse the council because he seems to be trying to reaffirm the fullness of faith that is found only in the Catholic Church and do damage control for the erroneous appearance of tacit approval for the condemned heresy of modernism. The demise of discipline and doctrine in the wake of the council has resulted in at least two and possibly three generations that do not know their faith and are easy targets for the proselytism of non-Catholics. Communion in the hand has bred contempt for and seriously eroded belief in the Real Presence. I believe Pope Benedict XVI is trying to regain control of the universal church that was lost when organizations of national bishops were given autonomy.