“What the intention was, I don’t know.” That’s the reaction from Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, in an exclusive interview with Reuters about the furor over the rehabilitation of the anti-Semitic Traditionalists. Powerful stuff, strong words that need to be heard:
Here is the text of the piece:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict has given credence to “the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism” by rehabilitating a Holocaust-denying bishop, said Elie Wiesel, the death camp survivor, author and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Wiesel also said there was no way the Vatican could have not known about the bishop’s past and it may have been done “intentionally”.
“What does the pope think we feel when he did that? That a man who is a bishop and Holocaust denier — and today of course the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism is Holocaust denial — and for the pope to go that far and do what he did, knowing what he knows, is disturbing,” Wiesel said by phone from New York.
“The result of this move is very simple: to give credence to a man who is a Holocaust denier, which means that the sensitivity to us as Jews is not what it should be,” he said late on Tuesday.
British-born Richard Williamson, one of four traditionalist bishops whose excommunications were lifted on Saturday, has made several statements denying the full extent of the Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians.
Williamson told Swedish television: “I believe there were no gas chambers” and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million.
His comments caused an uproar among Jewish leaders and progressive Catholics, many of whom said it had cast a dark shadow over 50 years of Christian-Jewish dialogue.
“It’s a pity because Jewish-Catholic relations, thanks to John XXIII and John Paul II, had never been as good, never in history,” Wiesel said, referring to the popes who revolutionised relations with Jews after 2,000 years of persecution and mistrust.
Asked if he believed it was possible that the Vatican did not know that Williamson was a Holocaust denier, Wiesel, who won the Nobel in 1986 and survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, said:
“Oh no! The Church knows what it does, especially on that level for the pope to readmit this man, they know what they are doing. They know what they are doing and they did it intentionally. What the intention was, I don’t know.”
Since the furore over the pope’s decision to lift the excommunication, the Vatican has condemned Williamson’s comments as “grave, upsetting (and) unacceptable”, restating the Church’s — and Benedict’s — teachings against anti-Semitism.
Wiesel said he could not offer the Vatican any advice on how to put things right with Jews but something had to be done.
“The Vatican created the situation. It’s up to them to resolve it. As it is, it is a very sad situation. So unexpected because we had high hopes for the relations between Jews and Catholics because they had been so good under those two popes … and now it’s the opposite,” said the 80-year-old.
Wiesel recounted his experiences in death camps in the book “Night”. Asked what the controversy meant to him personally as a survivor, he said: “Puzzlement, shock, and immense sadness.”
On Tuesday, Williamson’s superior in the traditionalist movement publicly apologised to the pope and said William had been disciplined and ordered to remain silent on political or historical issues.
But Wiesel agreed with other Jewish leaders who have said the episode would have long-lasting ramifications in the fight against anti-Semitism.
“One thing is clear. This move by the pope surely will not help us fight anti-Semitism. Quite the opposite,” he said.
Beliefnet
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posted January 28, 2009 at 11:41 am
The furor over Pope Benedict’s lifting the excommunication against the four schismatic Bishops has exposed the fault lines in Jewish-Catholic relations. While nothing can assuage Mr. Wiesel and the Jewish community of their justifiable fears of the current global resurgence of anti-Semitism, the outrage being directed at Pope Benedict arises from fundamental differences between Christianity and Judaism.
For Catholics, excommunication is a spiritual remedy for awakening in the transgressor the understanding that they have separated themselves from the body of believers. It is NOT the default punishment for having attained a certain generalized degree of moral terpitude. Catholics are a rather forgiving lot.
In welcoming back a schismatic Bishop to the Sacraments, Pope Benedict is doing the work of healing a brother Bishop. Sacraments are not rewards for good behavior, or symbols of one’s status in the Church. They are vehicles through which God ministers His healing love and saving grace. Frequent reception of the Sacraments helps to perfect us. We do not set perfection as a precondition of Sacramental reception.
As for this action setting back Jewish-Catholic relations, I fail to see how this is so. The ranks of the Catholic priests, monks, brothers, and nuns were decimated in WWII because they were caught sheltering Jews at Pope Pius XII’s direction. Pope John Paul II gave, on behalf of the Church, our most profound apology and request for forgiveness for all the ways we failed our Jewish brothers and sisters in love during the past two millennia.
Reconciliation is a process in which the offending party acknowledges their guilt and asks for a chance to repair the fabric of the relationship (Done by John Paul II). The offending party must then do penance (The blood of scores of thousands of priests and religious given protecting Jews). At that point, the ball is bounced to the offended party. In the face of a confession of guilt, expression of sorrow for that guilt, request for forgiveness, and performance of penance, the offended party is obligated to engage the process. This is done through patient forbearance and facilitating growth together.
Demonizing the Pope for his ongoing work at rehabilitating an aging, weak, and obviously deluded Bishop does not strike me as being serious about forgiveness. Don’t forget, his Holocaust denial not only includes the Jews, but the deaths of his own Catholic clergy and religious. In our Church, we WORK at saving sinners, not crushing the life out of them.
Perhaps the greatest difference between Catholic and Jewish approaches to remembrance and forgiveness has been highlighted by James Michener in his novel, The Source. In the novel, two Jewish archaeologists are discussing why one of them is leaving Israel for a new life in America:
“Eliav, it seems to me we Jews spend our lives remembering, and I’ve suddenly discovered that I’m sick and tired of living in a land of remembrance. My year in Jerusalem begins with Rosh Hashana when I remember Abraham, four thousand years ago. Then comes Yom Kippur, and we remember everything. The Feast of the Booths and we remember the desert years. Like a great bronze bell tolling over the churches of Jerusalem, we tick off our days and remember our grief…
“At Purim we remember Persia three thousand years ago, and at Passover we remember Egypt even longer ago. Lag Ba Omer, Shavuot. And on the ninth of Ab we mourn the loss of Jerusalem. When did we lose it? Two thousand years ago. We have special days to remember Herzl, students, socialists, the United Nations, the brave men who fell defending Jerusalem in 1948, and Independence Day.
“For years I dutifully remembered and thought it was natural to spend one’s life weeping over the dead past, uttering lamentations for things that happened so terribly long ago. It was a burden, but it was our special, inescapable Jewish burden and I accepted it.”
Such an inescapable burden is what our Sacrament of Reconciliation is designed to relieve. Therein lies the fault line between us.
I have always had the highest regard for Mr. Wiesel and his life’s work. I fervently pray for the eradication of any vestige of anti-Semitism in my Church. However, for this Catholic, there is all the difference in the world between ‘Don’t Forgive’ and ‘Never Forget.’
posted January 28, 2009 at 3:08 pm
It’s refreshing to hear someone who is knowledgeable about the positions and teachings of the Romans Catholic Church. I do not know Mr. Nadals affiliation with the Church, but he would be well supported in his defensive statements, if some ordained ministeres of Catholicism were to provide some historical or doctrinal input. I recognize that some individuals, while eating their Hebrew Nataional Salami believe they answeer to a higher authority, but historical facts seems to be grossly distored in their Papal attacks! Just my opinion! Isn’t brotherhood and belief in one Goad a unifying force?
posted January 28, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Brooklyn Kid,
Thank you for the kind words. I’m a Brooklyn kid too-grew up in Sunset Park. Relative to my background, I studied in a Catholic seminary for a few years, ran retreat weekends for teens and young adults for several years, worked as a peer minister in Campus ministry, am active in my parish, a member of the Knights of Columbus and am a Molecular Microbiologist. I am currently pursuing a masters degree in Theology and Pastoral Ministry.
Yes, I too would love to see some Catholic Priests and Deacons contributing, as well as Rabbis, Ministers and Imams. The internet and blogs such as these are the new town square. Ordained clergy of all faiths ought to be where the people are.
In my posts, I hope that I am coming through as a conduit for what my Church teaches. in matters such as this, I understand the concerns of our Jewish brothers and sisters. I pray that they see past one poor deluded Bishop to a genuine, radical change of heart these past seven decades, from the grass roots of my Church, to its Highest offices.
P.S. Wasn’t Brooklyn a great place to grow up? All the best!!
posted June 21, 2009 at 9:27 am
I believe most Jews would overlook now the Catholic Church disciplines one of their own provided the Pope would offer a more ewxplicit recitation of Christian sin, i.e., a detailed statement of the two thousand year history of Christian anti-semitism, including self-reflection as to the root causes of such history. After all, one cannot repent unless they understand what lead them to committ th sin in the first place. Finally, there must be restituion to teh Jewish people. A suggestion: Provide homes to the Palestine refugess. Its obvious their leadership does not want peace. But if each individual refugee were offered a decent home and standard of living, they would reject their leadership’s war plan in a New York minute.