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children of Abraham, are called to be a blessing for the world"; and he
fervently prayed "for the fullness of
Shalom
for all your brothers in
nationality
[my italics] and in faith, and also for the land to which jews
look with particular veneration ....May all peoples in Jerusalem soon
be reconciled and blessed in Abraham!"
This last reference, which includes Muslims as well as Christians and
Jews, also highlights another interesting feature of John Paul II's position
on issues of concern to the Jewish people. As early as J980, by referring
to the
nationality
and the
land,
he was clearly pointing to Israel and per–
haps hinting at the recognition that would eventually come in 1993. But
as the texts also reveal, the Pope did raise the Palestinian issue continu–
ally and has been sympathetic to their plight. His position on the Middle
East has been finely balanced between recognition of the rights of both
Israeli Jews and Palestinians to a homeland of their own. In the 1980s he
received not only Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres (both Polish-born
Foreign Secretaries and then Prime Ministers of Israel) but also Yasser
Arafat in the Vatican-the latter visit provoking much Jewish criticism.
So, too, did the pomp-laden official reception in Rome for blacklisted
Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (an ex-Nazi and supposedly a good
Catholic) in 1987-one of John Paul II's less felicitous acts of diplo–
macy. This period between 1985 and 1990 was one in which jewish–
Catholic relations experienced a number of serious setbacks, which
unfortunately evoke little if any serious reflection or commentary in
Spiritual Pilgrimage.
Things began, however, ptomisingly enough, with
Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Catholic
Preaching and Teaching-a
handbook meant to clarify and rectify
omissions in the Vatican II document of twenty years earlier. Better still,
on April
J
3, 1986 came the Pope's historic visit to the synagogue in
Rome-one of the most dramatic moments of his entire pontificate.
His address on that occasion contained three especially relevant points.
First, he declared: "The Jewish religion is not 'extrinsic' to us, but in a
certain way is 'intrinsic' to our own religion. With judaism, therefore,
we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion.
You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be
said that you are our elder brothers." Secondly, John Paul II reaffirmed
the position of
Nostra Aetate
in repudiating any collective or ancestral
blame being attached to the Jews for Christ's passion; and thirdly, the
Church rejected any notion claiming to be based on scripture that the
jews were a "cursed" people. On the contrary, in the words of St. Paul,
the Jews were beloved of God, and-to quote the present Pope–
"called...with an irrevocable calling."
