The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust PDF
Preview The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust
Copyright 2006. Catholic University of America Press. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. EAABNcS:cC oO3u 6nP0tu3:b3 l7si 7s;2h 6iF2nr8ga9 n0:k eJB.o oCko pApcaa.d;e mTihce CPoalplaeccyt,i otnh e( EJBeSwCsO,h oasntd) t-h ep rHionltoecda uosnt 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use Frank J. Coppa The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust The Catholic University of America Press•Washington,D.C. EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use Copyright © The Catholic University ofAmerica Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements ofAmerican National Standards for Information Science— Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library materials, .-. -- Coppa,Frank J. The papacy,the Jews,and the Holocaust / Frank J.Coppa. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. -:----(cloth :alk.paper) -:---(cloth :alk.paper) .Catholic Church—Relations—Judaism. .Judaism— Relations—Catholic Church. .Christianity and antisemitism— History. .Papacy—History. I.Title. .C .—dc EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use CONTENTS Introduction:The Papacy and the Jews between History and Polemic / vii Abbreviations / xix . Papal Anti-Judaism in Theory and Practice over the Millennia / . Anti-Judaism in the Church:From the French Revolution to the Mid-Nineteenth Century / . Pio Nono and the Jews:From Reform toReaction,– / . Anti-Judaism in an Age ofAnti-Semitism,– / . Pius XI and the Jews in an Age ofDictators,– / . The “Silence”ofPius XII and His Crusade against Communism / . John XXIII,Paul VI,and Vatican II:Aggiornamentoand the the New Relationship between Catholics and Jews / . Apology and Reconciliation:John Paul II Confronts the Church’s Anti-Judaic Past and the Holocaust / Conclusion:The Papacy and the Jews, Past and Present / Select Bibliography / Index / EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use INTRODUCTION The Papacy and the Jews between History and Polemic When the first Pope set foot in Rome,the Jews were already there.* THE PAPACY, OR OFFICE OF THE BISHOP OF ROME, has long played a crucial role in Western civilization,exercising a unique role in Catholicism and generat- ing widespread interest.1Some writers,linking the cross and the swastika, haveseenits history and theology as steeped in hostility toward the Jews and as influencing what one writer has called “the longest hatred,”anti- Semitism.2Inthe post–World War II era,and increasingly since ,there has been renewed scrutiny of Rome’s alleged “pathological” aversion to Jews,which forms part ofthe literature on Jewish-Christian relations.3My inquiryfocused initially on Pius XII’s stance during the Holocaust,but it *Sam Waagenaar,The Pope’s Jews(La Salle,Ill.:Open Court,),. .Some studies ofthe papacy are scholarly,others more journalistic.A few,such as Lui- gi Marinelli’s Via col vento in Vaticano(),which has delved into the dark side ofthe Vat- ican,supposedly exposing the intrigues and plots therein,has seen its author summoned be- fore the Roman rota.Likewise critical is the recent study by Garry Wills,whose title Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit(),reveals its message.Others,such as Richard P.McBrien’s Lives ofthe Popes: The Pontiffsfrom St.Peter to John Paul II(),Eamon Duffy’s Saints and Sinners: A History ofthe Popes(),P.G.Maxwell-Stuart’s Chronicle ofthe Popes: A Reign- by-Reign Record ofthe Papacy from St.Peter to the Present(),and Frank J.Coppa’s Ency- clopedia ofthe Vatican and Papacy()havenot causedas much controversy.While these latter studies have concentrated more on the popes than on the papacy,the work ofThomas J.Reese,S.J.,Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization ofthe Catholic Church(), focuses on the politics and organization ofthe Catholic Church,as its subtitle indicates. .Robert S.Wistrich,Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred(New York:Schocken Books, ),–. .Agood,though dated,review ofthis historiography is found in James E.Wood Jr.,“A Selective and Annotated Bibliography on Jewish-Christian Relations,”JCS(spring ): –.A more recent survey ofJewish-Christian relations will be found in the thirty-two essaystracing this relationship from the ancient world to the present found in Christianity and Judaism: Papers Read at the Summer Meeting and the Winter Meeting ofthe Ec- clesiastical History Society(Cambridge,Mass:Blackwell,). vii EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use viii Introduction has expanded to encompass the broader question of the papacy and the Jews. Indeed, the troubled relationship between the two has provoked much controversy over the last four decades.On the one hand,controver- sy has been generated by the attempt to trace the roots of the Holocaust and to assign responsibility.On the other hand,it has been fueled by the conflict within the Church between liberals and conservatives, who di- verge on John XXIII’s aggiornamentoand the innovations produced by the Second Vatican Council (–).As early as the nineteenth century Jo- hann von Döllinger noted that Jews and liberal Catholics had a common enemy in papal autocracy.Some Catholics,deeming the papacy essential, reject all criticism of the institution,while others,acknowledging its cen- trality,insist that it be purged oferrors and excesses.4 These developments reinforced each other in the early s,when the discussions ofthe Second Vatican Council coincided with the publication of Rolf Hochhuth’s sensational play,which criticized the “silence”of Pius XII during the mass murder ofEuropean Jews during World War II.Oth- ers chimed in that the papacy was guilty of sins of commission as well as those of omission.It has even been suggested that the Vatican has coun- tered Hochhuth’s and others’critique ofPius XII by seeking to elevate Pius to sainthood.5 In this atmosphere, polemical attacks and defensive dis- course have prevailed over historical inquiry.The present work seeks nei- thertoprosecutethe papacy nor to provide an apologia for its policies on Jews,neitherto denigrate nor to defend its response to the anti-Semitism of the fascist regimes of the twentieth century. It aims to transcend the thicketofcontroversy and provide a historical account ofthe relationship betweenthe papacy and the Jews in the modern age,and to explore the in- teraction between clerical anti-Judaism and secular anti-Semitism.In light ofthe polemical debate this subject has aroused in the past sixty years,this is easiersaid than done. Hochhuth’s play Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy), first performed in Germany in , was almost immediately translated into a dozen other languages,sparking a controversy about Pius XII’s role during the geno- . James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,),.For a critical evaluation by a Catholic,see Garry Wills,Why I Am a Catholic(Boston:Houghton Mifflin,). .Carroll,Constantine’s Sword,. EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use Introduction ix cide and the general responsibility of previous popes and the Catholic Church for bringing it about. The projected beatification of Pius XII in and the release in of the Costa Gavras film Amen, based on Hochhuth’s drama,unleashed a new storm of controversy.Some writers have argued that Pius XII’s “silence”can be understood only within the context ofcenturies ofChristian “disparagement”ofJews,and have postu- lated that the difference between Christian anti-Judaism and Nazi anti- Semitism was one ofdegree,not ofkind,and that both contributed to the Holocaust.Indeed,some have concluded that Christian anti-Judaism pro- vided much of the basis for modern anti-Semitism, and have traced its sources to the anti-Judaic bias ofthe New Testament and the teachings of the Church Fathers.6 Christian authors who have traced modern anti- Semitism to Christian anti-Judaism include Rosemary Ruether, Malcom Hay,Edward H.Flannery,James Parkes,Friedrich Heer,Roy Eckart,and more recently James Carroll and William Nicholls. Nicholls sees anti- Semitism as flowing from the accumulated Christian hatred of the Jews going as far back as the Gospels.7Malcolm Hay perceived a “chain of er- ror”fostering the unjustified papal response to the Jews stemming from St.Bernard,St.John Chrysostom,St.Ambrose,and St.John the Evange- list.8 Others have denied the Christian roots of anti-Semitism, noting the differencebetween clerical anti-Judaism,motivated by religious consider- ations,and modern anti-Semitism,based on a racial ideology.9Opponents of this viewfind the distinction between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism illusory,denouncing it as an unconvincing attempt to separate the papacy and the Church from the anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holo- caust.These critics claim that the border between the two was fluid and that they merged into a broader movement. Indeed, some have divided anti-Semitism intotwo major components:racial and ideological,the for- .See Jules Isaac,The Teaching ofContempt: Christian Roots ofAnti-Semitism,trans.H. Weaver (New York:Holt,Rinehart and Winston,).See also Fred Gladstone Bratton,The Crime ofChristendom: The Theological Sources ofChristian Anti-Semitism(Boston:Beacon Press,) .See Hyam Maccoby,“Origins ofAntisemitism,”Midstream(Dec.):;William Nicholls,Christian Antisemitism: A History ofHate(Northvale,N.J.:Jason Arson,). .Hayquotedin Carroll,Constantine’sSword,. .See Gregory Baum,Is the New Testament Anti-Semitic?(Glen Rock,N.J.:Paulist Press, ). EBSCOhost - printed on 5/22/2022 6:10 AM via . All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use
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