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January 11, 2002/27 Tevet 5762, Vol. 54, No. 17
Obstacles remain in Jewish-Catholic relations
RUTH E. GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
ROME - The wartime record of Pope Pius XII, the need to open the Vatican's secret archives and other unresolved Holocaust issues remain key obstacles in Vatican-Jewish dialogue.
But Jewish and Catholic experts alike say these issues should not hold back a process that otherwise is unfolding in a positive way.
"Jewish-Catholic relations have never been so good," David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's international director for interreligious affairs, told JTA from his Jerusalem office.
"In that context, issues such as Pius XII" should be "seen as what they are, fleeting clouds over a positive horizon," he said. "Though obviously, for those caught in a thunderstorm under those clouds, the clouds are all they see."
In recent months, in fact, thunderstorms over Pius XII brought relations between the Vatican and its traditional primary Jewish partner, the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, to their lowest point in years.
Pope John Paul II has long planned to beatify Pius XII, a step toward making him a saint. But some Jews accuse Pius of virtual complicity with the Nazi regime because of his public silence in the face of Nazi genocide against the Jews.
A Jewish-Catholic team of scholars set up by the Vatican and IJCIC in 1999 to study the Holocaust role of the Vatican and Pius XII foundered last year amid acrimonious attacks from both sides after the team was denied full access to the Holy See's wartime archives.
IJCIC Chairman Seymour Reich says he recognizes that Jewish-Catholic dialogue is increasingly multifaceted and encompasses a much broader agenda.
"Aside from the issues of Pius XII and the archives, Catholic-Jewish relations are on a high plane," he told JTA.
"These issues are not going to go away," he added. "They have to be addressed, but that is not to take away from the need to address positive aspects."
Against this background, the Vatican is actively seeking to develop diversified avenues of contact that may bypass IJCIC on certain matters, an umbrella body of several Jewish organizations plus religious representatives of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, the chief Vatican representative to the Jewish community, "recognizes that the Jewish community is diverse and that there needs to be relations with different interests," Rosen said.
Already, for example, the Vatican has opened an interfaith exploration of theological issues with a new U.S.-based Jewish group set up for this purpose, the Rabbinical Committee for Interreligious Dialogue. The Vatican long has pushed for such contacts, but opposition from IJCIC's Orthodox members prevents the group from engaging in extensive theological dialogue.
Kasper has also said he will look for other experts to continue the work of the failed scholars committee, without IJCIC's collaboration. He also made clear he wants to foster closer, direct contacts with Jews in Israel.
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