Benedict’s resignation

Editorial

It is with some ambivalence that we witness the departure of Pope Benedict XVI. Reviews by Jews on the pontiff’s record regarding Catholic-Jewish relations are decidedly mixed.

Israeli leaders, including the Chief Rabbinate, as well as Jewish leaders around the world, spoke glowingly of Benedict after the announcement Monday of his impending retirement at the end of the month. A few other voices are less enthusiastic.

Benedict made many symbolic acts of Catholic-Jewish fraternity, including visiting the Western Wall, Yad Vashem and Auschwitz, although even these visits were marred by controversy. Then chief rabbi Yisrael Lau criticized the pope’s choice of words at Yad Vashem and others noted that he never referenced the Nazis.

Benedict has also advanced the efforts to make his wartime predecessor, Pius XII, a saint, even as that pope’s actions during the Holocaust are being explored and remain deeply contested.

Within the church, Benedict’s reputation as an arch-conservative led to doctrinal changes that reversed decades of progress on relations with Jews. He effectively rescinded the excommunication of the Society of St. Pius X, an ultra-conservative Catholic fringe group whose members have expressed support for the French extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen and whose leader is a Holocaust denier. He also revived a pre-1960s Latin Mass that calls on Jews to convert and describes Jews as “blind,” “in darkness” and having “veiled hearts.” Benedict would eventually amend the liturgy on the latter descriptions, while maintaining that Jews should “recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all men.”

Beyond issues directly impacting Jews, Benedict’s handling of the church’s decades-long abuse scandal will be judged by its victims. And his vigorous emphasis on the church’s rejection of condoms, in the age of AIDS, which has helped destroy countless lives in Africa, will be judged also.

There will be, of course, much more analysis of the legacy of Benedict. Journalism, being history’s first draft, only hints at the complexity of his place in the annals of the papacy and the world.

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