By Rabbi Ben Kamin
ENCINITAS, California –Pope John Paul II was the rock star; Pope Benedict XVI has been the rock. Hardly without flaws (as neither Moses nor King David were scarcely impeccable), the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger did the grunt work of the papacy after his predecessor’s warm and charming period of outreach and celebrity. Both men achieved much in warming and healing relations between the Vatican and the Jewish people; Benedict has studiously put into doctrine what John Paul set up as themes.
The pope made mistakes, surely. At times, he seemed out of touch and strangely impervious to the pain of other cultural groups. He cravenly readmitted the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson (among other bishops who had been formerly excommunicated) but then quietly made sure that Williamson’s role was strictly titular. He dabbled in the beatification of Pope Pius XII, whom Jews and others suspect of being complicit with the Nazis.
This—and many other controversial issues—had been generated under the more charismatic John Paul II; Benedict, though not always sensitive, was nonetheless the one who studiously tackled the festering challenges that were left on St. Peter’s table.
The egregious and global sexual abuse culture so deeply ingrained within the Church community was in place long before the election of Ratzinger to the papacy. The fact is that this pope has been the first to acknowledge and denounce it. As reported in The New York Times today:
“For his supporters, it was a painful paradox that the long-gathering abuse scandal finally hit the Vatican with a vengeance under Benedict. As the leader of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he had been ahead of many of his peers in recognizing how deeply the church had been damaged by revelations that priests around the world had sexually abused youths for decades. As early as 2005, he obliquely referred to priestly abuse as a “filth in the church.”
Benedict visited synagogues, prayed for collective forgiveness at Israel’s sacred Yad Vashem Memorial to the Six Million, and placed a devotional into the Western Wall. He has lived up to the historical fact of his being inducted into the Hitler Youth movement as a Bavarian child and then deserting it. Israel’s chief rabbi stated: “During his period [as pope] there were the best relations ever between the church and the Chief Rabbinate and we hope that this trend will continue. I think he deserves a lot of credit for advancing inter-religious links the world over between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.” [Wire reports].
I had the privilege of seeing Pope John Paul II up close near the end of his life, in 2004. He was clearly a warmhearted man, a genuine priest, and a talented diplomat who deeply humanized the papacy and set many good things in motion. I felt moved and in prayer. The retiring Benedict XVI, who was John Paul II’s protégé, has not finished the work of the Church’s transformation to true relevancy for most of the world’s Catholics. But he has never stopped working at it.
And like Moses, he knew when it was time for someone else.
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Rabbi Kamin is a freelance writer based in Encinitas, California. He may be contacted via ben.kamin@sdjewishworld.com