Jews and the new pope

Editorial

Throughout history, the goodwill (or ill will) of a pope had a tremendous impact on the fate of Jews. The conclave that selected Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI this week may seem of limited interest to Jewish Canadians, yet, if history is anything to go by, there is a real likelihood that he will have a substantial impact on the future safety, security and well-being of Jews worldwide.

There are close to a billion Catholics in the world, most notably in Africa, Asia and South America. While Catholic populations in Europe and North America are stagnant or declining, they still make up the largest religious affiliation among Canadians – and Catholicism is flourishing in the developing world. That is also where the Church is found in its most conservative permutation, while Europe and North America are the home of the most liberal Catholics, which is, of course, a relative term after a quarter-century of increasing conservativeness under John Paul II.

It is perhaps not a happy tradition that Jewish fortunes should rest so heavily on the leader of another religion, but that is a fact of history. That it remains so today reminds us that the world, while changing, maintains some startling similarities to the past.

John Paul's papacy was enormously influenced by his special relationship with Jewish people in his Polish homeland. From an early age, the pope had embraced his Jewish neighbors, and the experiences of the Second World War were, apparently, a cause of great regret and mourning for him.

While medieval popes could turn the fate of the Jews around on a whim, contemporary popes are more limited to symbolic efforts. Nevertheless, the power of symbolism is vast. Through his visits to a synagogue in Rome, as well as to Israel, John Paul sent a crucial message to Catholics and Jews about tolerance, coexistence and complementary (rather than super- cessionary) theology. Most importantly, he embodied the new liturgy of Catholicism which, after the 1960s, rejected the long-held anti-Semitic accusation of deicide.

Jewish observers may be holding our breaths this week, awaiting an olive branch from the new pope. Though Ratzinger's selection is a sign of continuity – the German cardinal was one of John Paul's closest confidants – the wartime experiences of the two popes could hardly be more divergent. While John Paul is said to have participated in grassroots, theatre-based activism against the Nazi regime, Ratzinger was a member of Hitler Youth, as required by law under the Third Reich.

During the war, Ratzinger was also apparently the guard at a factory in which Jewish slave laborers worked. He was released from military service in order to complete his religious studies.

The wartime history of the Church is a matter of substantial historical research and reconsideration. The personal experiences of that generation's leaders (in the Church, in politics and in other realms) has occasionally become an issue over the years. Most notably, former United Nations secretary-general – then Austrian head of state – Kurt Waldheim's past came back to haunt him, if not hurt him.

Already, commentators are speculating on the "optics" of a new pope with a Nazi past, however tangential, replacing the pope who made steps forward on issues of concern to Jews. Now that Ratzinger has emerged as the new pontiff, this issue will no doubt be explored in excruciating depth. Not only will the role of Ratzinger in the war era be at issue, so will the wisdom of the cardinals who, furnished with at least partial knowledge of Ratzinger's past, chose him to lead them regardless. On the upside, there is the possibility that Ratzinger, stung by the revisiting of his past, will make special efforts to build bridges with Jews and continue John Paul's legacy of friendship with the Jewish community. Let's hope.

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