ROME (CNS): Poland’s chief rabbi said he hopes Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Israel will be an opportunity for the Pope to demonstrate to the world his deep knowledge of and respect for Judaism.
Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the United States-born chief rabbi of Poland, said the May trip can be “very enlightening and help Pope Benedict show in a very clear way” the sensitivity and respect that has been clear in his writings for decades.
“I am full of hope,” the rabbi told Catholic News Service on March 2 after delivering the second annual Pope John Paul II Lecture on Interreligious Understanding at Rome’s Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas.
Rabbi Schudrich’s speech focused on how he learned from “the life and actions” of Pope John Paul about the importance of interreligious dialogue and of being willing to learn from members of other religions.
But the rabbi said he could not talk about Catholic-Jewish relations without acknowledging that “it clearly was very painful” when Pope Benedict lifted the ex-communication in January of traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson, who had denied the extent of the Holocaust.
“It is not my place to tell or even suggest to Pope Benedict or the Vatican what they should or should not do,” the rabbi said. The incident has demonstrated that 40 years of improving relations make it possible for Jews and Catholics to speak openly when offended or hurt, he said.
In an interview after his speech, the rabbi said the Bishop Williamson affair caused many people to “jump to the conclusion” that Pope Benedict was not scandalised by Holocaust denial.
But Rabbi Schudrich said he and others who knew the writings of the Pope knew that was not true.
The Pope, after the lifting of the ex-communication, said that denying or minimising the Holocaust “is intolerable and altogether unacceptable”.
The Vatican published a statement saying that Bishop Williamson would not be welcomed into full communion with the Church unless he disavowed his remarks and publicly apologized.
