The quest to “defeat…the spirit of evil that foments war, because it is murderous from the beginning and a liar and the father of lies” might seem to be a nice, if strangely worded, sentiment.
If, that is, those italicized phrases hadn’t been borrowed from the New Testament, where they refer to Jews who remained faithful to the Torah. And if they hadn’t been invoked by the current pontiff, Pope Francis, in regard to “the people of Gaza.”
And spoken on the occasion of October 7.
The Catholic Church has come a long way with regard to its attitude toward klal Yisrael. Early Church figures like Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom were rabidly anti-Semitic.
The former called Jews “companions of the devil” and a “race of vipers.” The latter characterized us as “no better than hogs and goats.” And there’s no need (not to mention enough space here) to catalogue the tragically abundant blood libels, forced conversions, anti-Jewish laws, expulsions—not to mention Crusades—that characterized the Middle Ages.
Nor a need to point out that children’s literature in Nazi Germany cited the very phrases Francis invoked, in order to justify and promote hatred of Jews.
But in 1960, Pope John XXIII ordered that a Latin insult against Jews be removed from church rituals. Several years later, under his successor, Paul VI, the Second Vatican Council, in what was truly a revolutionary move for the Church, full-throatedly condemned anti-Semitism.
And, as a result, over subsequent years, relations between the Vatican and Jewish representatives warmed greatly. Jewish lay leaders, including Orthodox ones, cultivated relations with Catholic prelates and even worked together with Catholic groups regarding issues of mutual interest.
The Brooklyn Diocese, for instance, supported the Agudah’s successful challenge to then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s COVID rules for houses of worship. And, last year, the Agudah filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of a Catholic school that was sued by a teacher who was terminated, in accordance with the school’s charter, because of her violation of a Catholic religious principle. (The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in the school’s favor.)
All of which makes the current pope’s words above particularly upsetting, indicating, as they do, some…backsliding.
And this, at a time of widespread anti-Semitism (whether dressed in “anti-Zionism” or wearing only a sneer) around the world, when Jews have been attacked and murdered, when shuls have been vandalized and set aflame, when, even in the US, Jewish university students are harassed and venomous comments aimed at Israel and at Jews are spewed by members of Congress and clueless cultural figures.
It might be tempting to imagine that Francis may have simply forgotten the context of the words he quoted. After all, he is—in reality if not in Catholic doctrine—fallible.
But that temptation is considerably tempered by the pope’s recent joining with Palestinian officials at the Vatican to showcase a tableau presenting the object of Christian veneration as a baby lying on a keffiyeh, the textile trademark of the “from the river to the sea” crowd. The distasteful display was eventually removed, but only after an outcry from a number of corners.
Further eroding any attempt to excuse Francis’ New Testament quote are comments the pontiff made last month calling for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide. (At least he left deicide out of it.)
That comment drew an immediate reaction from the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, Yaron Sideman. He noted that accusations of genocide were indeed appropriate, but not in the way Francis meant. “There was a genocidal massacre,” Mr. Sideman pointed out, “on 7 October, 2023—of Israeli citizens.” And, as a result, he explained, “Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens.”
And he added that “Any attempt to call [that right to self-defense] by any other name is singling out the Jewish state.”
German Catholic theologian Gregor Maria Hoff also reacted strongly. “It is not enough,” he wrote, “to condemn violence without unambiguously identifying the responsible actors.
“It does not help to invoke the ‘path of friendship, solidarity and cooperation’ [between Catholics and Jews, a sentiment Francis has invoked] while the Jewish partner has to fight for his survival in his own country and on its borders.”
Gut gezogt, Herr Hoff.
To read more, subscribe to Ami
Recent Comments