generalspeaking

Forget - How? Forgive - Never

How thoughtful of Pope Benedict to invite a Jew, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, chief rabbi of Haifa, to speak before a Vatican synod. How thoughtless of the good Pope to overlook informing Rabbi Cohen that the purpose of the synod was to ceremoniously honour Pope Pius XII, the wartime Pope. For the purpose of bringing Pope Pius closer to sainthood. For his exemplary ecclesiastical work on behalf of humankind.

As manifested by his prodigious exertions on behalf of European Jews as they were systematically rounded up, routed to ghettos where they were starved and used as slave labourers, then to death camps where they were expeditiously exterminated. In the monumental effort of clinical detachment and entrenched anti-Semitism to rid the world of Jewish influence and presence.

Rabbi Cohen expressed his sincere regrets, on being informed while at the Vatican, of the purpose of the synod. He would not have exerted himself to appear, had he known. For he had great difficulty sharing the synod participants' reverence and admiration for the work of Pius XII. Believing, unreasonably, that the Pope did too little to assist in the rescue of Jews during the Third Reich.

"We cannot forget the sad and painful fact of how many, including great religious leaders, didn't raise their voice in the effort to save our brethren but chose to keep silent and helped secretly. We cannot forgive and forget it and we hope that you understand..." Asking for understanding for condemning the public inaction of one whose active resistance might have saved millions?

It's a safe bet that after his heartfelt delivery, the atmosphere was stilled. A cross, had it been dropped, would have resounded, no doubt, in that great chamber of thoughtful clergy. The 80-year-old Rabbi Cohen expounded: "Pius may have helped in secrecy many of the victims and many of the refugees but the question is, 'Could he have raised his voice and would it have helped or not'?"

How could it conceivably have harmed the situation? In an environment of dedicated, rabid determination to destroy all living Jewry? The condemnation expressed by such a world-wide, highly respected figure of religious authority could only have helped. Helped to inform the German public in general of the depth and breadth of their nation's shame at a time when public outcry might have resonated.

But then, nothing effectively happened, because the pope in his wisdom sought to rescue whom he could, with the underground network he helped to establish. In the process rescuing Jewish children from certain death, and seeing those children safely and lovingly raised in Catholic institutions and homes as good Catholics, never knowing their true identities.

Still, a wily intelligence, though trapped in a situation not of his liking, makes the most of any opportunities, and thus did Rabbi Cohen address the assembled religious luminaries. Reminding them of the failures of the past and beseeching them to look to the future.

They collectively managed to drop, unfortunately evade their moral and religious responsibility before, but now they had the opportunity to exert their influence where they could, in averting a similar potential disaster awaiting Jews.

Particular Jews: Zionists, Israelis. Representing in total an analogous figure to that which was summarily destroyed as a human pestilence by Nazi Germany.

Rabbi Cohen embraced the opportunity to appeal to the assembled two hundred and more Roman Catholic bishops from all over the world to take active part in denouncing the avowed intent of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, to destroy the State of Israel.

"I'm here also to ask you, leaders of religions, to raise your voice and together with the help of the free world protect, defend and save Israel...from the hands of our enemies." He spoke of a recent UN statement publicly made by "a certain president of a state in the Middle East".

Which, he explained, "brought back to us the painful memories of the tragedy of our people, the victims of the Holocaust, which we hope and pray will never happen again."

Labels: Israel, Political Realities, Religion

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, October 07, 2008