ROBERT S. WISTRICH
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an idea that was previously inconceivable"; it was not quite so unprece–
dented nor inconceivable as this implies, nor is the Pope's affirmation
entirely devoid of ambiguity. Moreover, it might be questioned whether
the revolutionary change in attitudes to Jews and Judaism is really on a
par with, for example, John Paul II's impact in wrenching Poland from
the Soviet Empire and sapping the moral foundations of communism.
But O'Brien is certainly right to stress the importance of the Pope's
constant reaffirmation of the special character of Jewish suffering in
World War II, a leitmotif which began with his first Papal visit to Poland
in June
1979.
His homily at Auschwitz, recited with impressive gravity
and tearful eyes, recalled "the memory of the people whose sons and
daughters were intended for total extermination," a people whose ori–
gin was from Abraham, "our father in faith," who had received the
commandment "Thou shalt not kill," and who had tragically "experi–
enced in special measure what is meant by killing."
Despite periodical Jewish concerns that John Paul II's cult of
Auschwitz as the "Golgotha of the modern world" might herald an
attempt to "Christianize the Shoah," there can be little doubt that the
Pope's warnings about the Holocaust have been primarily directed
against racism, and, more specifically, against anti-Semitism. Nor is
there much doubt that the Pope sees the problem of anti-Semitism in the
theological framework of a historic misunderstanding of God's Chosen
People and of the true connection between Judaism and Christianity,
wh ich has been obscured and gra vely deformed over the centu ries.
As the texts in
Spiritual Pilgrimage
make clear, John Paul II has been
working for the last twenty years to re-educate Catholics on these mat–
ters, to set the record straight so that Christians and Jews can begin a
new millennium in peace, harmony, and mutual respect. In this
endeavor he has continued the work of Pope John XXIII, Vatican II, and
a whole generation of pioneering Catholic and Jewish scholars, begin–
ning with the French-Jewish historian Jules Isaac. As a result, many
Catholics have begun to accept that God does not go back on his
promises, that proselytism towards Jews is abhorrent where it is not a
matter of free choice, and that the Jewish people and their faith deserve
their deepest respect.
In a speech on November
7, 1980
to the Jewish community of Berlin,
the Polish Pope praised such Jewish thinkers as Martin Buber and Franz
Rozenzweig, "who, through their creative familiarity with Jewish and
German languages, constructed a wonderful bridge for a deeper meeting
of both cultural areas." Even more significantly, he insisted that the Old
Covenant had
l1ever been reuoked by God;
that "Jews and Christians, as
