POPE JOHN PAUL II HAS DIED

Pope John Paul II died this afternoon from a long illness that has plagued him for some time now.

The Pope will forever be remembered by the Jewish people for his tireless efforts improving relations between Catholics and Jews; and trying to heal some of the wounds from the Holocaust when thousands of people, Catholics included, turned their heads to the destruction of the Jewish people under Adolph Hitler.

Most memorable would be Pope Pius XI who forced many Jewish children to convert to Catholicism and ordered Catholic families not to return these children to their parents at the conclusion of the war. Pope John Paul II beatified this pope in his quest to obtain sainthood for the war time pope.

Pope John Paul II will be remembered by this writer as a true friend to the Jewish people of the world.

Perhaps the most public and well-known example of John Paul’s efforts to improve relations between Catholicism and Judaism was his March, 2000 ceremony in St. Peter’s where he publicly pleaded for pardon and forgiveness from God for the transgressions of Catholics in the past. He took personal responsibility for what had occurred at the hands of “sons and daughters of the Church” and acknowledged that Jews in the past had suffered grievous wrongs not merely by Christians, but also in the name of Christianity.

Although few could deny the responsibility of the Catholic Church for so many “sins” against the Jews, there were those who objected to such public contrition. Other “mea culpas” would follow on various issues and this would only lead to further criticisms. Despite such rhetoric, though, John Paul’s actions have largely pleased traditionalists and conservatives of the Church — for example, the efforts to have Pope Pius XII canonized.

John Paul has called on the worldwide Catholic community to reckon with its 2,000 years of history and to look toward a more meaningful understanding of Judaism and the Jewish people in God's design.

The Pope has recognized the special relationship between Christianity and the Jewish people, a central theme of Nostra Aetate, and a major theme of his own reflections on that historic document.

In his exceptional writings and pronouncements, Pope John Paul II has shared his understanding of Judaism as a living heritage, of the permanent validity of God's covenant with the Jewish people and of the abhorrent sin that is anti-Semitism.

May this Pope of the Catholic church Rest in Peace....The Rogue Jew