Haaretz: Pope defends Nazi-era Vatican

Last update - 20:33 17/01/2010
By Sivan Kotler de Benedetti and News Agencies

Pope Benedict XVI used his first visit to Rome's synagogue on Sunday to defend the oft-criticized actions of the Vatican during the Holocaust, saying the Church had "acted in a discreet and hidden way."

The pope made the comments after a Jewish leader bluntly told the pontiff that his wartime predecessor Pius XII was "silent" in the face of the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe, and should have spoken out more forcefully against the Holocaust.

"The silence of Pius XII before the Shoah still hurts because something should have been done," Riccardo Pacifici, president of Rome's Jewish community told the pope, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.

"Maybe it would not have stopped the death trains, but it would have sent a signal, a word of extreme comfort, of human solidarity, towards those brothers of ours transported to the ovens of Auschwitz [death camp]," he said.

Meanwhile, Israel, via Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, asked the pope during his synagogue visit to open up the Vatican archives covering Pius' papacy.


"I asked the pope to find a way to make it possible to open the archives in the Vatican in order to give some details of the papacy of Pius XII in order to ease tensions between the Jewish people and Catholics," Silvan Shalom told Reuters at the end of the pope's visit.

In his speech in the synagogue, Benedict balked at the accusation that the pope turned a blind eye to the plight of Europe's Jews, saying: "The Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way."

Benedict was welcomed with applause Sunday upon his arrival at the synagogue, a visit he said would improve relations between Catholics and Jews.

He was greeted by Rome and international Jewish leaders as he arrived at the synagogue on the banks of the Tiber - a short distance from the Vatican - to begin the two-hour visit.

Several prominent Jews said they would boycott the visit, but applause greeted the pope as he arrived at the synagogue in the Old Jewish Ghetto, where for hundreds of years Jews were confined under the orders of a 16th century pope.

Benedict warmly shook hands with the synagogue's retired chief rabbi, Elio Toaff, who welcomed John Paul II when the late pontiff visited the synagogue in a ground-breaking event in 1986.

Rightardia comment: The Vatican needs to open its secret archives on the Nazi era. Benedict XVI proclaimed Pope Pius XII, sometimes referred to as the Nazi Pope, is eligible for beatification in a decree issued on December 19, 2009. Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler Jugend and should clear the air on Catholic complicity with the Nazis. Let some Jewish scholars examine the archives and prepare a report

source: Hareetz

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Satire: Papacy decrees Divine Right of Popes

(Rome) The Vatican announced today a new Roman Catholic doctrine entitled the Divine Right of Popes. The Divine Right of Popes is a political and religious doctrine of royal absolutism. It asserts that a pope is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God.

The Pope is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including the church. The doctrine implies that any attempt to depose the pope or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute heresy.

The origins of the theory are rooted in the medieval idea that God had bestowed spiritual power and authority to the church, centering on the pope. The author of the theory was Jean Bodin, a French jurist and political philosopher.

Because the Pope is now considered divine, the Trinity has been revised to become Quadity. The church now recognizes the Father, the Son the Holy Ghost and the Pope.

His Holiness Pope Benedict the XVI explained it this way. In the past when a Roman Catholic went to communion, he would use the parish priest as a vessel to speak directly to God. This always bothered popes because they weren’t in the loop. With the Quadity, a Roman Catholic will use the priest as a vessel to relay the prayers to the Pope. "I will then talk directly to God for all Roman Catholics," said Pope Benedict XVI. "
God listens when I talk."

According to the Times of London, many clerics in the Vatican were not surprised of this change. In the hushed Apostolic Palace off St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI starts the day with an early mass in his private chapel, followed by a lone breakfast. No press summary is brought to him. He meets a few visitors in the morning and then, after a lunch served on gold-rimmed plates bearing his seal, he retires to his study.

The Pope’s daily routine, as described by Vatican insiders, is being blamed for a series of blunders that have prompted a show of dissent from cardinals. Critics claim he is leading the church and its 1.2 billion faithful like a monarch cut off from the world outside his palace windows, helped only by loyal but inept advisers.

“People feel disoriented,” a senior Vatican official confided last week. Our impression is His Holiness, affectionately known as Pope Bennie the Rat, is not at the wheel.”

The pontiff has provoked outrage and a rebuke from German chancellor, Angela Merkel, by revoking the excommunication of four breakaway bishops.

Benedict then named Father Gerhard Maria Wagner as the Bishop of Linz, in Austria. Wagner had preached that Hurricane Katrina was retribution for the activities of abortionists, prostitutes and homosexuals in New Orleans.

For many inside the Vatican, the issue is the Pope’s style of leadership. “People feel that the Pope is governing like a monarch. He has isolated himself by ignoring advice which could stop him making mistakes,” said a leading Vatican analyst. “He can get away with this now that he is divine.”

Many of these problems can be traced to Pope John Paul II who surrounded himself with conservative sycophantic clerics and only promoted conservatives to cardinals and bishops.

Benedict offended Muslims with a 2006 speech quoting a Byzantine emperor who described the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman”. He upset Israel and Jews by saying he wanted to make a saint of Pope Pius XII, despite criticism that Pius had failed to speak out against the Holocaust during the Second World War.

“Even in the Vatican you can’t just rely on the Holy Spirit,” said Zizola. “I
guess we will just have to wait for the old geezer to fade away.”

source: Wikipedia

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