The Pope and the Anti-Semites
2009/05/11
Reauthorization
On the occasion of the German Pope's visit to Israel, criticism is again being voiced in other European countries concerning the Pope's support of anti-Semitic forces. For several years, the Pope has been provoking protest through his various declarations and activities. The protest is particularly focused on the reauthorization of a liturgy that may seem inconspicuous, but is in fact of great importance to church policy: It ascribes to Judaism an inferior status than that of Christianity.[1] This controversial act laid the groundwork for the reacceptance into the folds of the Catholic Church of the Society of Saint Pius X, a catholic organization known for its anti-Semitism. One of the four bishops, whose excommunication was lifted in this context by Benedict XVI, is a known denier of the Holocaust. These papal measures have facilitated the rise of Opus Dei, a rise, experts call "meteoric". Already as cardinal of the Roman Curia, Joseph Ratzinger had turned to this organization. Opus Dei was close to Francisco Franco, the fascist Spanish dictator, and can be considered the most effective combat force against liberalism and tolerance within the Catholic Church (german-foreign-policy.com reported [2]).
Absolute Truth
Prior to the Pope's Israel visit, the dispute over papal support for anti-Semitism has again escalated. In reaction to the dispute over a renewed Catholic anti-Semitism, on April 2, the „Jews and Christians" dialogue group of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) presented a position paper (Renunciation of Missionizing Jews). The church need "not convert Jews to the Christian faith", the authors write, "nor incite them (...) to baptism for their salvation." The authors rejected all notions of Judaism being inferior.[3] This paper provoked ardent discussion. Mainly theologians, close to Benedict XVI, reject this declaration. Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, President of the German Bishops' Conference is accusing the authors of being "one-sided".[4] The conflict, between the ZdK and the bishops, has been since escalating. In this conflict, "for the Pope, nothing less than the church's claim to the absolute truth is at stake" writes the press.[5]
"Volk der Mitte"
With the renewed Catholic anti-Semitism in mind, critics point to the orientation of Ratzinger's earlier milieu - for example the fact that today's Pope "owes his career to supporters who were Nazi sympathizers." Of major significance was Bishop Rudolf Graber from Regensburg, who, toward the end of the 1960s had "the planned Jewish studies professorship transformed into a professorship for dogma."[6] Graber was considered a self-proclaimed anti-Semite. In a pamphlet written in 1933 he asked "why should the scorned Israel rather than the Volk der Mitte (people of the middle) rule the world."[7] He later opened "for Ratzinger, the doors to the Habsburgs and Franz Josef Strauss," according to the Swiss press.
Branding and Banning
Georg Ratzinger, the Pope's great-uncle, was part of the openly anti-Semitic trend in 19th century Bavarian Catholicism that had greatly influenced Joseph Ratzinger as well as Rudolf Graber. According to a paper published by the priest in 1892 entitled "Jewish Working Life," one reads that "the emancipation of the Jews" could bring "nothing other than destruction and disruption of the entire Christian society."[8] Georg Ratzinger, who wrote numerous anti-Semitic pamphlets, first served as parliamentarian in the Bavarian regional parliament, and later as a parliamentarian in the German Reichstag. The Swiss press recalls that he had demanded that "Jews be branded and banned from social life."[9]
Vanguard
Joseph Ratzinger never met his great-uncle. He was born 28 years after his great-uncle had died. Still, among the disciples of today's Pope, his great-uncle Georg is highly revered. In one statement by loyalists to the Pope, Georg Ratzinger is described as "a highly merited clergyman, a social reformer, a publicist and politician,"[10] who merely criticized the "culturally recalcitrant and violence-prone socialists of the period, who were in close alliance with political Judaism". The sympathy displayed toward the great-uncle by the authors of this statement is shared by Joseph Ratzinger. In a public speech held in 1996, Joseph Ratzinger showed his admiration; Georg was in the "vanguard of the struggle for the rights of the farmers and the simple people, in general."[11] A similar public statement from Pope Benedict XVI, dealing with his great-uncle's anti-Semitism, whose works are still finding sympathizers today, has yet to be found.
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