Both great irony and a profound opportunity for all of us can be found as Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a special Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII, whose response to the Nazis stirs controversy to this day. The mass coincides with the historic visit of Haifa Chief Rabbi, Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the first Rabbi to address a Vatican synod, who spoke at the Synod of the Word on Monday.
Rabbi Cohen has been a fearless proponent of inter-religious dialogue and advocate for religious pluralism in Israel. But according to David Gibson's Beliefnet blog, Pontifications, Cohen said, that he would have stayed away had he understood the context of his visit. I find those words sad, understandable and wrong-headed.
The fact that this is all happening around Yom Kippur is so powerful. On a day which celebrates that we can stand before God and get a second chance, no matter what we have done, Catholics and Jews have the opportunity to engage in a more honest dialogue than ever before because it can happen in the context of two pledges which reflect the ethos of the holiday, which is ultimately a joyous day.
First, let us pledge that we can say anything to each other because, like God and the ancient Israelites, we will not abandon this relationship even when we disappoint each other. And second, we both believe in the possibility of starting over, of moving beyond the past without having to forget it. We will not make this about those who want to forget versus those who honor memory. Instead, we will figure out together how to honor the memories of all those we love.
But the tensions reported by today's Religion New Service story about the "Yom Kippur Mass" point in another direction. They suggest that each side is gearing up for an evidence war in which they can prove their desired outcome i.e. that Pope Pius was a life-saving hero during the war, or that he was a passive spectator who failed to stop the murder of thousands, if not millions. What if each of those claims is partially true?
There is no question, that Pius saved many lives during the Holocaust, and in the words of Pope Benedict, "that wherever possible, he spared no effort". But reasonable people can disagree about the definition of what was possible for Pius, and feel deep disappointment that his sincere definition of that term may in fact have fallen far short of the mark. The Saintly Pius/Sinner Pius will get us nowhere. And like many wars, the "Pius wars" may be a confrontation between two absolutist positions, each of which is partially true.
If Catholics could acknowledge that the pained disappointment of Jews is not simply an anti-Catholic canard, and Jews could imagine that despite the enormous power that we attribute to the Church, it may be that even the Pope couldn't do all that we would have hoped for during those terrible years. Are we even ready to admit those things? To put down the blame which fuels the fire of memory, or admit the limitations in courage and vision which effect even great leaders?
Yom Kippur promises that all of this is possible. It promises that past mistakes can be admitted without undermining the sacredness of those who committed them, and can even, with honest accounting, propel those who made them to a spiritual level beyond even those who have never made any mistakes at all. If that is how both sides approach this issue, we will find ourselves living in a new era of interfaith encounter -- one more interested in the future than in the past even as we pledge that the past will never be forgotten. I hope that both Yom Kippur and tomorrow's mass give us the courage to do just that.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Why are you all suspicious of a Pope who is attempting to build a bridge between two peoples of faith. Your own Rabbi's have stated in print and published how much Pius X11 did for the Jews and how very much he helped them escape the Nazi's. He, Pius X11 is so much maligned. He did as much one could. I had a Jewish friend who stated a catolic family hid his family from the Jews in WW11, and if put in the circumstances he would not have done the same, he wouldn't have jeopardized his family for another. I do not understand individuals who praise and distrust as the same time. We should get on with the business of making a better world were we can be at peace with one another.
Jim said it very well in his blog of Oct. 9, 2008
It seems as if one invades sacred territory to attempt to take over the tradition of another faith as if it " found fulfillment in Christianity."
Also, I agree with him that "Sometimes simple silence in acknowledgment of another tradition's truth is the most attentive response one can give."
Thank you, Jim - Let us not trample on the holy by trying to change it or adapt it to another way of thinking.
B"H
While I respect Christians for their faith, Jews cannot be expected to forget all the pain the Church inflicted on our people over the past 2,000 years.
And who was the Pope who ordered Catholic orphanages NOT to reveal the identity of Jewish children who were "rescued" during the war, when Jewish agents were travelling over Europe to bring these children back to their homes, or to Israel, to continue living their lives as Jews?
One touching story in this situation, was where a Rabbi visited a Catholic orphange and inquired of any Jewish children living there. He was told there were not Jewish children in that institution, and the children were gathered together to demonstrated this "fact."
However, the Rabbi thought for a moment, then called out, "Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad!"
To which a number of children responded "Boruch Shem Kavod Malchuso L'Olom Vo'Ed..."
This was a quote by the late Pope John Paul II.
"I remember...the Wadowice elementary school, where at least a fourth of the pupils in my class were Jewish.
I can vividly remember the Jews who gathered every Saturday at the synagogue behind our school. Both religious groups, Catholics and Jews, were united, I presume, by the awareness that they prayed to the same God.
Despite their different languages, prayers in the church and in the synagogue were based to a considerable degree on the same texts."
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"Crossing the Theshhold of Hope"
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He apologized for the "wrong-doings" that the Church did, however there were several Catholics that did good deeds toward the Jews.
When Anne Frank went into hiding, she lived with a Catholic Family, Oskar Schindler helped rescue Jews from the concentration camps, and many others like them participated in rescuing them from death.
These Catholics risked their lives as well doing what we(Catholics) believe was an injustice towards the Jews.
I too come from a Jewish background, but because my mother is not Jewish, I am not considered a Jew.
We should try to accept and respect our differences, so that our children don't ever live through what our parents or grandparents lived through.
Religions and beliefs should not create barriers of hatred, it should create bridges of trust and respect towards each other, afterall...we all share the same world.
Regardless of what language we speak, the color of our skin, and how we communicate, we are all human.
AMEN
With the 50th Anniversary of the death of Pius XII, the Vatican is again pushing for his sainthood. While Pius can be legitimately criticized for his tepid condemnations of the Nazi Holocaust there is no question he was complicit in the deaths of at least 500,000 Orthodox Christian Serbs, Jews and Roma murdered in Croatia, Bosnia, and Krajina during the Second World War by the Axis allied Croatian regime.
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