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Documentation

LENT 2000


MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION: THE CHURCH AND THE FAULTS OF THE PAST

International Theological Commission, Rome, March 7, 2000



5.4 Christians and Jews

The relationship between Christians and Jews is one of the areas requiring a special examination of conscience.1 “The Church’s relationship to the Jewish people is unlike the one she shares with any other religion.”2 Nevertheless, “the history of the relations between Jews and Christians is a tormented one.... In effect, the balance of these relations over 2,000 years has been quite negative.”3
The hostility or diffidence of numerous Christians toward Jews in the course of time is a sad historical fact and is the cause of profound remorse for Christians aware of the fact that “Jesus was a descendent of David; that the Virgin Mary and the apostles belonged to the Jewish people; that the church draws sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the gentiles (cf. Rom. 11:17-24); that the Jews are our dearly beloved brothers, indeed in a certain sense they are ‘our elder brothers.’”4
The Shoah was certainly the result of the pagan ideology that was Nazism, animated by a merciless anti-Semitism that not only despised the faith of the Jewish people but also denied their very human dignity. Nevertheless, “it may be asked whether the Nazi persecution of the Jews was not made easier by the anti-Jewish prejudices imbedded in some Christian minds and hearts.... Did Christians give every possible assistance to those being persecuted, and in particular to the persecuted Jews?”5
There is no doubt that there were many Christians who risked their lives to save and to help their Jewish neighbors. It seems, however, also true that “alongside such courageous men and women, the spiritual resistance and concrete action of other Christians was not that which might have been expected from Christ’s followers.”6
This fact constitutes a call to the consciences of all Christians today, so as to require “an act of repentance (teshuva)” 7and to be a stimulus to increase efforts to be “transformed by renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2) as well as to keep a “moral and religious memory” of the injury inflicted on the Jews. In this area, much has already been done, but this should be confirmed and deepened.




UNIVERSAL PRAYER: CONFESSION OF SINS AND ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS
St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, March 12, 2000

IV. Confession of Sins Against the People of Israel

Cardinal Edward Cassidy: Let us pray that, in recalling the sufferings endured by the people of Israel throughout history, Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by not a few of their number against the people of the Covenant and the blessings, and in this way will purify their hearts.
[Silent prayer]

Pope John Paul II: God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R. Amen R. Kyrie, eleison; Kyrie, eleison; Kyrie eleison.



STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO PAPAL APOLOGY
International Council of Christians and Jews, March 15, 2000


The International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), umbrella organization of 31 national dialogue organizations world-wide, acknowledges with respect the historic step taken by Pope John Paul II expressing admission of guilt and apology for sins committed in the past against many groups and communities by the Catholic Church.
In referring specifically to the guilt towards the Jewish people, the Pope stressed once again the particular relationship between the Church and the Jews “the people of the Covenant”. This particular relationship was first acknowledged by the Second Vatican Council and reconfirmed by various statements of the Catholic Church. In a veritable revolutionary process – in which Pope John Paul II played a decisive role – the image of the Jew in the Catholic Church was transformed from that of an alien viewed with contempt and hostility, to one of acceptance of the “older brothers” in kinship and respect.
While the content does not go as far as past statements of the Church, the national Bishops’ Conferences and Pope John Paul II himself, the significance of the Pope’s words lies in the fact that Pope John Paul II spoke on behalf of the community of Catholic Christianity in a liturgical act of contrition for sins committed against the Jewish people.
However, the lack of an unambiguous reference to the Church’s guilt in relation to individual groups of victims in this liturgical language of admission of guilt understandably also leads to disappointment and criticism. One would in particular have wished that the document accompanying the act of contrition would have sought further answers to the Church’s apparent difficulty in admitting also its institutional historic guilt and responsibility. Not only ‘Christians’ in general, but those responsible throughout the ages in leading the Church must be included in the challenge to humbly seek repentance in teaching and liturgy, “viewing the sins of the past in an authentic purification of memory” leading “to the path of true conversion”, t’shuva. This is particularly relevant to the history of the Church’s anti-Judaism and specifically for the role of the Catholic Church during the Shoah.
Despite these critical reflections we appreciate the unique fact in the history of the Catholic Church and the Papacy that Pope John Paul II clearly signals his wish to lead his Church in admission of guilt and contrition into its new millennium. It is our hope that it will lead to further improvement in the particular relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people in all the world’s regions. We also hope that the Vatican’s evident endeavor at a lasting new relationship with the Jewish people will reinforce similar endeavors in the non-Catholic Churches and their readiness for a critical reflection on their own history. There is room for examining the unfinished task of revising teaching and liturgy also in the non-Catholic Churches.
We further hope that this attitude will also lead to lasting closer contacts and improvement in the relationship of the Catholic and other Christian Churches to the Muslim community. They are all challenged to seek a better, lasting mutual understanding with Christianity’s and Judaism’s nearest neighbor, Islam.

Rabbi Prof. David Rosen, President
Pastor Friedhelm Pieper, General Secretary



RESPONSE TO “WE REMEMBER: A REFLECTION ON THE SHOAH”
Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
March 6, 2000


In the Jubilee year 2000, Lent is a particularly appropriate time for us to remember the sins and failures of the past. We hope that our response to We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah will contribute in a positive way to the ongoing dialogue and reconciliation between Catholics and Jews in England and Wales. We must all learn lessons from the past so that a tragedy like the Shoah can never happen again and foundations are well laid for a future of understanding and friendship. Bishop Charles Henderson, Chairman


1. The Committee welcomes the Vatican document, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, long promised by Pope John Paul II and in preparation since 1987. This is the first official statement promulgated by the Church about the Shoah (Holocaust) and the part played by Christians.

2. We appreciate the seriousness with which the document deals with the Shoah, and the call for Christians to remember this ‘unspeakable tragedy’. It is a tragedy the Church needs to remember on account of her members’ part in it, especially in view of the close relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Failure to remember can lead to a minimizing of the Shoah and even a denial that the tragedy ever took place.

3. We endorse the view that the enormity of the Shoah calls for a ‘moral and religious memory’ and, particularly among Christians, a very serious reflection on what gave rise to it. The Church, therefore, must engage in an in-depth study of the history of Christian-Jewish relations, the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and those racist theories which formed the background to the Shoah. The document points out that in the Christian world ‘erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament engendered feelings of hostility towards the Jewish people’ and goes on to describe the development of nationalism which gave rise to an anti-Judaism which was ‘essentially more sociological and political than religious’. This distinction, however, must not be allowed to diminish the importance of the part played by the long tradition of Christian anti-Semitism of which we have evidence in theology, catechesis, liturgy and art. Nor must the Church lose sight of this aspect of the ‘tormented’ history which calls for continued formation of lay people and clergy.

4. There were many who helped Jews during World War II and they must be remembered and honored. At the same time there were others who had knowledge of the genocide being perpetrated against the Jewish people and who failed to speak out. Among these were ‘sons and daughters of the Church’ who must necessarily include members of the clergy and the hierarchy. Some remained silent because of fear that their words could lead to further loss of life and others remained silent for less noble reasons.

5. In this document the Church calls for an act of repentance for the failures of her members throughout the ages and particularly with regard to the ‘heavy burden of conscience’ Christians should bear after the Shoah. The Committee urges the Catholic Church in England and Wales to find ways of helping her members to respond to this call.

6. Hoping that it will mark a new beginning in the relationship between Jews and Christians, the document asks the Jewish community to ‘hear us with open hearts’. Unfortunately, media coverage immediately after the document was issued demonstrated that many Jews were disappointed with it. Many of these historical and theological issues raised will need further analysis and fresh approaches before more progress can be made. The description of the Jews bearing ‘the unique witness to the Holy One of Israel’ (the most positive estimation so far in a Vatican document of the role of the Jewish people after the Christ event) shows how much progress has already been made.

7. The Committee begs that the necessary steps be taken to implement the serious call expressed in this important Vatican document on Catholic-Jewish relations so that the tragedy of the Shoah can never happen again.




VISIT OF POPE JOHN PAUL II TO ISRAEL, MARCH 2000



ADDRESSES OF JOHN PAUL II
Welcome Ceremony, Tel Aviv Airport, March 21, 2000


Dear President and Madame Weisman, Dear Prime Minister and Madame Barak, Dear Israeli Friends, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Yesterday, from the heights of Mount Nebo I looked across the Jordan Valley to this blessed land. Today, it is with profound emotion that I set foot in the Land where God chose to “pitch his tent” (Jn 1:14; cf. Ex 40:34-35; 1 Kgs 8:10-13), and made it possible for man to encounter him more directly.
In this year of the two thousandth anniversary of the Birth of Jesus Christ, it has been my strong personal desire to come here and to pray in the most important places which, from ancient times, have seen God’s interventions, the wonders he has done. “You are the God who works wonders. You showed your power among the peoples” (Ps 77:15).
Mr. President, I thank you for your warm welcome, and in your person I greet all the people of the State of Israel.

2. My visit is both a personal pilgrimage and the spiritual journey of the Bishop of Rome to the origins of our faith in “the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob” (Ex 3:15). It is part of a larger pilgrimage of prayer and thanksgiving which led me first to Sinai, the Mountain of the Covenant, the place of the decisive revelation which shaped the subsequent history of salvation. Now I shall have the privilege of visiting some of the places more closely connected with the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Along every step of the way I am moved by a vivid sense of God who has gone before us and leads us on, who wants us to honor him in spirit and in truth, to acknowledge the differences between us, but also to recognize in every human being the image and likeness of the One Creator of heaven and earth.

3. Mr. President, you are known as a man of peace and a peacemaker. We all know how urgent is the need for peace and justice, not for Israel alone but for the entire region. Many things have changed in the relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel since my predecessor Pope Paul VI came here in 1964. The establishment of diplomatic relations between us in 1994 set a seal on efforts to open an era of dialogue on questions of common interest concerning religious freedom, relations between Church and State and, more generally, relations between Christians and Jews. On another level, world opinion follows with close attention the peace process which finds all the peoples of the region involved in the difficult search for a lasting peace with justice for all. With new-found openness towards one another, Christians and Jews together must make courageous efforts to remove all forms of prejudice. We must strive always and everywhere to present the true face of the Jews and of Judaism, as likewise of Christians and of Christianity, and this at every level of attitude, teaching and communication. (cf., Address to the Jewish Community of Rome, April 13, 1986, 5)

4. My journey therefore is a pilgrimage, in a spirit of humble gratitude and hope, to the origins of our religious history. It is a tribute to the three religious traditions which co-exist in this land. For a long time I have looked forward to meeting the faithful of the Catholic communities present in the Holy Land. I pray that my visit will serve to encourage an increase of interreligious dialogue that will lead Jews, Christians and Muslims to seek in their respective beliefs, and in the universal brotherhood that unites all the members of the human family, the motivation and the perseverance to work for the peace and justice which the peoples of the Holy Land do not yet have, and for which they yearn so deeply. The Psalmist reminds us that peace is God’s gift: “I will hear what the Lord God has to say, a voice that speaks of peace, peace for his people and his friends, and those who turn to him in their hearts” (Ps 85:8). May peace be God’s gift to the Land he chose as his own! Shalom.



Visit to the President of Israel, March 23, 2000

Mr. President, Government Ministers, Members of the Knesset, Your Excellencies,
I am most grateful, Mr. President, for the welcome you have given me to Israel. To this meeting we both bring long histories. You represent Jewish memory, reaching beyond the recent history of this land to your people’s unique journey through the centuries and millennia. I come as one whose Christian memory reaches back through the two thousand years since the birth of Jesus in this very Land.
History, as the ancients held, is the Magistra vitae, a teacher of how to live. This is why we must be determined to heal the wounds of the past, so that they may never be opened again. We must work for a new era of reconciliation and peace between Jews and Christians. My visit is a pledge that the Catholic Church will do everything possible to ensure that this is not just a dream but a reality.
We know that real peace in the Middle East will come only as a result of mutual understanding and respect between all peoples of the region: Jews, Christians and Muslims. In this perspective, my pilgrimage is a journey of hope: the hope that the twenty-first century will lead to a new solidarity among the peoples of the world, in the conviction that development, justice and peace will not be attained unless they are attained for all.
Building a brighter future for the human family is a task which concerns us all. That is why I am pleased to greet you, Government Ministers, members of the Knesset and Diplomatic Representatives of many countries, who must make and implement decisions which affect the lives of people. It is my fervent hope that a genuine desire for peace will inspire your every decision. With that as my prayer, I invoke abundant divine blessings upon you, Mr. President, upon your country, and upon all of you who have honored me with your presence. Thank you.



Visit to the Chief Rabbis at Hechal Shlomo, March 23, 2000


Very Reverend Chief Rabbis,
It is with deep respect that I visit you here today and thank you for receiving me at Hechal Shlomo. Truly this is a uniquely significant meeting which – I hope and pray – will lead to increasing contacts between Christians and Jews, aimed at achieving an ever deeper understanding of the historical and theological relationship between our respective religious heritages.
Personally, I have always wanted to be counted among those who work, on both sides, to overcome old prejudices and to secure ever wider and fuller recognition of the spiritual patrimony shared by Jews and Christians. I repeat what I said on the occasion of my visit to the Jewish Community in Rome, that we Christians recognize that the Jewish religious heritage is intrinsic to our faith: “you are our elder brothers” (cf. Address at the Synagogue of Rome, April 1986, 4). We hope that the Jewish people will acknowledge that the Church utterly condemns anti-Semitism and every form of racism as being altogether opposed to the principles of Christianity. We must work together to build a future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews.
There is much that we have in common. There is so much that we can do together for peace, for justice, for a more human and fraternal world. May the Lord of heaven and earth lead us to a new and fruitful era of mutual respect and cooperation, for the benefit of all! Thank you.



Interreligious Meeting at the Notre Dame Pontifical Institute, March 23, 2000


Distinguished Jewish, Christian and Muslim Representatives,

1. In this year of the Two Thousandth Anniversary of the Birth of Jesus Christ, I am truly happy to be able to fulfil my long-cherished wish to make a journey through the geography of salvation history. I am deeply moved as I follow in the footsteps of the countless pilgrims who before me have prayed in the Holy Places connected with God’s interventions. I am fully conscious that this Land is Holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Therefore my visit would have been incomplete without this meeting with you, distinguished religious leaders. Thank you for the support which your presence here this evening gives to the hope and conviction of so many people that we are indeed entering a new era of interreligious dialogue. We are conscious that closer ties among all believers are a necessary and urgent condition for securing a more just and peaceful world.
For all of us Jerusalem, as its name indicates, is the “City of Peace”. Perhaps no other place in the world communicates the sense of transcendence and divine election that we perceive in her stones and monuments, and in the witness of the three religions living side by side within her walls. Not everything has been or will be easy in this co-existence. But we must find in our respective religious traditions the wisdom and the superior motivation to ensure the triumph of mutual understanding and cordial respect.

2. We all agree that religion must be genuinely centered on God, and that our first religious duty is adoration, praise and thanksgiving. The opening sura of the Qur’an makes this clear: “Praise be to God, the Lord of the Universe” (Qur’an, 1:1). In the inspired songs of the Bible we hear this universal call: “Let everything that breathes give praise to the Lord! Alleluia!” (Ps 150:6). And in the Gospel we read that when Jesus was born the angels sang: “Glory to God in the highest heaven” (Lk 2:14). In our times, when many are tempted to run their affairs without any reference to God, the call to acknowledge the Creator of the universe and the Lord of history is essential in ensuring the well-being of individuals and the proper development of society.

3. If it is authentic, devotion to God necessarily involves attention to our fellow human beings. As members of the one human family and as God’s beloved children, we have duties towards one another which, as believers, we cannot ignore. One of the first disciples of Jesus wrote: “If any one says, ‘I love God’, but hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). Love of our brothers and sisters involves an attitude of respect and compassion, gestures of solidarity, cooperation in service to the common good. Thus, concern for justice and peace does not lie outside the field of religion but is actually one of its essential elements.
In the Christian view it is not for religious leaders to propose technical formulas for the solution of social, economic and political problems. Theirs is, above all, the task of teaching the truths of faith and right conduct, the task of helping people – including those with responsibility in public life – to be aware of their duties and to fulfil them. As religious leaders, we help people to live integrated lives, to harmonize the vertical dimension of their relationship with God with the horizontal dimension of service to their neighbor.

4. Each of our religions knows, in some form or another, the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Precious as this rule is as a guide, true love of neighbor goes much further. It is based on the conviction that when we love our neighbor we are showing love for God, and when we hurt our neighbor we offend God. This means that religion is the enemy of exclusion and discrimination, of hatred and rivalry, of violence and conflict. Religion is not, and must not become, an excuse for violence, particularly when religious identity coincides with cultural and ethnic identity. Religion and peace go together! Religious belief and practice cannot be separated from the defence of the image of God in every human being.
Drawing upon the riches of our respective religious traditions, we must spread awareness that today’s problems will not be solved if we remain ignorant of one another and isolated from one another. We are all aware of past misunderstandings and conflicts, and these still weigh heavily upon relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims. We must do all we can to turn awareness of past offences and sins into a firm resolve to build a new future in which there will be nothing but respectful and fruitful cooperation between us.
The Catholic Church wishes to pursue a sincere and fruitful interreligious dialogue with the members of the Jewish faith and the followers of Islam. Such a dialogue is not an attempt to impose our views upon others. What it demands of all of us is that, holding to what we believe, we listen respectfully to one another, seek to discern all that is good and holy in each other’s teachings, and cooperate in supporting everything that favors mutual understanding and peace.

5. The Jewish, Christian and Muslim children and young people present here are a sign of hope and an incentive for us. Each new generation is a divine gift to the world. If we pass on to them all that is noble and good in our traditions, they will make it blossom in more intense brotherhood and cooperation.
If the various religious communities in the Holy City and in the Holy Land succeed in living and working together in friendship and harmony, this will be of enormous benefit not only to themselves but to the whole cause of peace in this region. Jerusalem will truly be a City of Peace for all peoples. Then we will all repeat the words of the Prophet: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths” (Is 2:3).
To recommit ourselves to such a task, and to do so in the Holy City of Jerusalem, is to ask God to look kindly on our efforts and bring them to a happy outcome. May the Almighty abundantly bless our common endeavors!



Yad Vashem, March 23, 2000


The words of the ancient Psalm rise from our hearts:

“I have become like a broken vessel.
I hear the whispering of many
– terror on every side! –
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, ‘You are my God’.”
(Ps 31:13-15)


1. In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah. My own personal memories are of all that happened when the Nazis occupied Poland during the War. I remember my Jewish friends and neighbors, some of whom perished, others survived.
I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who, stripped of everything, especially of their human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust. More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain. Here, as at Auschwitz and many other places in Europe, we are overcome by the echo of the heart-rending laments of so many. Men, women and children cry out to us from the depths of the horror that they knew. How can we fail to hear their cry? No one can forget or ignore what happened. No one can diminish its scale.

2. We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again evil will prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism. How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God. Only a Godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people. The honor given to the “just gentiles” by the State of Israel at Yad Vashem for having acted heroically to save Jews, sometimes to the point of giving their own lives, is a recognition that not even in the darkest hour is every light extinguished. That is why the Psalms, and the entire Bible, though well aware of the human capacity for evil, also proclaim that evil will not have the last word. Out of the depths of pain and sorrow, the believer’s heart cries out: “I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’.” (Ps 31:14)

3. Jews and Christians share an immense spiritual patrimony, flowing from God’s self-revelation. Our religious teachings and our spiritual experience demand that we overcome evil with good. We remember, but not with any desire for vengeance or as an incentive to hatred. For us, to remember is to pray for peace and justice, and to commit ourselves to their cause. Only a world at peace, with justice for all, can avoid repeating the mistakes and terrible crimes of the past. As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place. The Church rejects racism in any form as a denial of the image of the Creator inherent in every human being (cf. Gen 1:26).

4. In this place of solemn remembrance, I fervently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people suffered in the twentieth century will lead to a new relationship between Christians and Jews. Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord, and look to Abraham as our common father in faith (cf. We Remember, V). The world must heed the warning that comes to us from the victims of the Holocaust and from the testimony of the survivors. Here at Yad Vashem the memory lives on, and burns itself onto our souls. It makes us cry out: “I hear the whispering of many – terror on every side! – But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’” (Ps 31:13-15).



Prayer at the Western Wall, March 26, 2000

God of our fathers,
you chose Abraham and his descendants
to bring your Name to the Nations:
we are deeply saddened by the behavior of those
who in the course of history
have caused these children of yours to suffer,
and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves
to genuine brotherhood
with the people of the Covenant.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.



ADDRESS BY PRIME MINISTER EHUD BARAK
Yad Vashem, March 23, 2000


Your Holiness, Pope John Paul II, allow me to open with a few words in our language, the language of Abraham, Moses and the Covenant, which has once again become the native language of the land of Israel:

[In Hebrew] A 2,000-year-old historical cycle is returning here to its beginning, bearing the weight of remembrance – its richness and pain, its light and shadows, its songs and laments. The wounds of time will not be healed in a day, but the path which brought you here leads to a new horizon. This hour will go down in history as a propitious hour, a moment of truth, the victory of justice and hope.

Your Holiness, in the name of the Jewish people, in the name of the State of Israel and all of its citizens – Christians, Muslims, Druze and Jews – I welcome you, in friendship, in brotherhood, and in peace, here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the eternal city of faith.
Your Holiness, we meet today in this sanctuary of memory, for the Jewish people and for all humanity. Yad Vashem – literally “a place and a name” – for the six million of our brothers and sisters, for one and a half million children, victims of the barbarian evil of Nazism. When the darkness of Nazism descended, and my people were led from all over Christian Europe to the crematoria and the gas chambers, it seemed that no longer could one place any hope in God or man. That in the words of the prophet Joel, “the sun and the moon darkened and the stars withdrew their luster.” And the silence was not only from the heavens. During that time, here in the land of Israel, the poet Natan Alterman wrote these searing, tormented verses: “As our children cried underneath the gallows, the wrath of the world we did not hear... .”
Your Holiness, from the depths of that “long night of the Shoah”, as you have called it, we saw flickers of light, shining like beacons against the utter darkness around them. These were the righteous gentiles, mostly children of your faith, who secretly risked their lives to save the lives of others. Their names are inscribed on the walls around us here at Yad Vashem; they are forever inscribed on the tablets of our hearts.
You, Your Holiness, were a young witness to the tragedy. And as you wrote to your Jewish childhood friend, you felt, in some sense, as if you yourself experienced the fate of Polish Jewry. When my grandparents, Elka and Shmuel Godin, mounted the death trains at Umschlagplatz near their home in Warsaw, headed towards their fate at Treblinka – the fate of three million Jews from your homeland – you were there, and you remembered.
You have done more than anyone else to bring about the historic change in the attitude of the Church towards the Jewish people, initiated by the good Pope John XXIII, and to dress the gaping wounds that festered over many bitter centuries. And I think I can say, Your Holiness, that your coming here today, to the Tent of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, is a climax of this historic journey of healing. Here, right now, time itself has come to a standstill... This very moment holds within it two thousand years of history. And their weight is almost too much to bear. Shortly before setting out on your pilgrimage here, you raised the flag of fraternity to full mast, setting into Church liturgy a request for forgiveness, for wrongs committed by members of your faith against others, especially against the Jewish people. We appreciate this noble act most profoundly. Naturally, it is impossible to overcome all the pains of the past overnight. Your Holiness has frequently commented on problems regarding past relations between Christianity and the Jews. It is our wish to continue productive dialogue on this issue, to work together to eliminate the scourge of racism and anti-Semitism.
Your Holiness, mine is a nation that remembers. However onerous the burden of memory, we may not avoid it, because without memory there can be neither culture nor conscience. The establishment of the State of Israel against all odds, and the ingathering of the exiles not only has restored to the Jewish people its honor and mastery over its fate; it is the definitive, permanent answer to Auschwitz. We have returned home, and since then no Jew will ever remain helpless or be stripped of the last shred of human dignity. Here, at the cradle of our civilization, we have rebuilt our home, so that it may thrive in peace and security. Defending our state has claimed a heavy toll. We are now resolved to find paths to historical reconciliation. We are in the midst of an enormous effort to secure comprehensive peace with our Palestinian neighbors, with Syria and Lebanon, and with the entire Arab world.
Your Holiness, we have noted with appreciation your words about the unique bond of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, that, and I quote you, “Jews love Jerusalem with a passion...from the days of David who chose it as a capital, and from the days of Solomon who built the temple there; therefore they turn to it in their prayers every day, and point to it as a symbol of their nation.” I would like to reiterate our absolute commitment to protect all rights and properties of the Catholic Church, as well as those of the other Christian and Muslim institutions; to continue to ensure full freedom of worship to members of all faiths equally; and to keep united Jerusalem open and free, as never before, to all who love her. I know that you pray, as we do, for the unity and peace of Jerusalem: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem...Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces, for my brethren and companions’ sake I will now say, peace be within thee.”
Your Holiness, you have come on a mission of brotherhood, of remembrance, of peace. And we say to you: Blessed are you in Israel.


________________

1 The argument is rigorously treated in the declaration of the Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate.
2 Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, Rome (March 16, 1998), I, in Information Service of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, No. 97, 19. Cf. John Paul II, address at the synagogue of Rome, April 13, 1986; AAS 78 (1986), 1120
3 This is the judgment of the recent document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah
4 Ibid., V, 22.
5 Ibid., IV, 20, 21
6 Ibid., IV, 21.
7 Ibid., V, 22