Pope Benedict XVI Draws Ire of Jews, Stops Short of Formal Apology to Jews on Behalf of Roman Catholic Church for Holocaust

Why am I not surprised that Pope Benedict XVI managed to insult the Israelis during his visit to the region. Yesterday he paid tribute to the memory of six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, pledging to work tirelessly to prevent such hatred from recurring in the hearts of mankind again. The Jews were not satisfied because he stopped short of apologizing on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. During his stop at Yad Vashem, he said, "Church feels deep compassion for the victims." I guess the Israelis have a right to be disappointed since his visit was a historic one, considering that he lived under Adolf Hitler and was a conscript of the German army.

According to Reuter's, in "Salt of the Earth," a 1996 book of autobiographical and religious reflections based on interviews with German journalist Peter Seewald, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said, however, that he was automatically enrolled into the Hitler Youth. He was asked if he had been a member, he said: "At first we weren't, but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later, as a seminarian, I was registered in the HY. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back." So, why the Vatican would now try to distance itself from the Pope's comments is suspect.

"We're talking about the pope, who is also a representative of the Holy See, which has a lot to ask forgiveness from our people for," Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said during an interview on Israel Radio on Tuesday. "And he is also a German, whose country and people have asked forgiveness. But he himself comes and speaks to us like a historian, as an observer, as a man who expresses his opinion about things that should never happen, and he was - what can you do? - a part of them." "If we let this go, in the end they'll say, 'the Jewish people can manage,'" the Knesset speaker said.

Benedict had said during Monday's speech that "I have come to stand in silence before the monument erected to honor the millions of Jews killed in the horrific tragedy of the Shoah." "They lost their lives, but they will never lose their names. These are indelibly etched in the hearts of their loved ones, their surviving fellow prisoners, and all those determined never to allow such an atrocity to disgrace mankind again." "I reaffirm - like my predecessors - that the church is committed to praying and working tirelessly to ensure that hatred will never reign in the hearts of men again," he said.

The English-language address by the pontiff, which was peppered with biblical quotations but which never referred to the Nazis and avoided all Holocaust-related issues of contention, was preceded by the pope's rekindling of the eternal flame in the chamber, which has a mosaic floor engraved with the names of 22 of the most infamous Nazi murder sites. He also laid a wreath over a stone crypt containing the ashes of Holocaust victims.

"As we stand here in silence, their cry still echoes in our hearts. It is a cry raised against every act of injustice and violence. It is a perpetual reproach against the spilling of innocent blood," he said. "I am deeply grateful to God and to you for the opportunity to stand here in silence: a silence to remember, a silence to pray, a silence to hope," he concluded. Source: The Jerusalem Post

I would be miffed at the Pope too for not coming out and apologizing for the Holocaust because he lived during that period of annihilation of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis. He also said that he was a Hitler Youth, so he knew darn well what the Holocaust was all about. Now, if he was not born during that period, then I would certainly not hold him to an apology. Much like those who are apologizing for slavery in the United States. The people who inflicted all that pain and suffering have been long dead, so what's the point? Pope Benedict XVI walked a fine line by going to the Middle East and it seems that he has not lived up to the expectations of neither the Jews nor the Palestinians. That's a real shame because he could have mended some broken fences and been a uniter instead of a divider.