Profs: Papal visit a call for religious peace
By ERIN PIROUTEK
Associate News Editor
For years, Pope John Paul II has prayed for the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Fragile health and political obstacles failed to keep the pope from realizing his dream of visiting the Holy Land and the most sacred sites of Christianity. He arrived in Jordan Monday and will remain in the Middle East until Sunday.
"Jerusalem is the holiest of cities for Christians because it is where Jesus suffered his passion and death and where he rose from the dead. In other words, it is the place where the Redemption occurred," said Father Richard McBrien, a theology professor at Notre Dame.
The week-long pilgrimage includes visits to the Church of the Sepulchre — the supposed site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection — as well as the site of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem and his boyhood home of Nazareth. The pope is also expected to say Mass at site of the Sermon on the Mount, with 100,000 worshipers anticipated.
The long-awaited visit was timed to coincide with the jubilee year.
"It is a Holy Year — and not just any Holy Year. It is the beginning of a new century and a new millennium," McBrien said.
Jerusalem has a unique role in three religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
"John Paul's vision is of a Jerusalem that serves as the meeting place of heaven and earth, as a place where all humanity can come together," said Rabbi Michael Signer, theology professor at Notre Dame.
This is the first time a pope has visited Israel since 1964, when Pope Paul VI made a pilgrimage. This visit, however, came at a time when the Vatican had no diplomatic relations with Israel. Paul VI's focus was to unify Christians in the Eastern and Western churches, not to improve relations with other religions.
This year, the pontiff will also visit holy Jewish sites — the Western Wall – a remnant of the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. — and Yad Vashern, a Jerusalem Holocaust memorial.
For nearly 2,000 years, relations between Jews and Christians have been strained. A major source of this tension was a former Church teaching regarding the Jews as killers of Christ.
"Historically many of the evangelists created a negative image of Judaism in order to demonstrate the truth of Christ's teaching," Signer said.
In this century, the Church has taken steps to improve its relationship with Jews.
"Pope John XXIII, as part of his desire to see the Church renew itself, looked at the history of the Church and the Jewish people and saw a tragedy," Signer said.
Pope John's concern led to Nostra Aetate, or "In Our Age," a 1965 papal document that denounced anti-Semitism and promoted dialogue between Christians and Jews.
"John Paul II picked up the legacy of John XXIII," Signer said. Growing up in Poland, the pope lost Jewish friends during the Holocaust. He has written more extensively about relations between the Jewish and Catholic people than any other pope. In 1979 the pope visited the memorial at Auschwitz and in 1986 he visited the Great Synagogue in Rome.
But some Jewish leaders question if this is enough.
The 1998 "We Remember" Vatican document on the Holocaust drew criticism for not emphasizing the wrongdoing of Church leaders. The pope's March 12 public apology for the sins of the Church did not mention the Holocaust specifically.
Signer explained, however, that the actions can be seen as positive steps towards reconciliation of past conflicts.
"The victims of the Holocaust are dead. No one can apologize to them," Signer said.
"And it's not easy for anyone to look at the errors and sins of their tradition. So more discussion, I think, is the next necessary step."
The most powerful aspect of the pope's visit, said Signer, would be the visual gesture of John Paul II visiting Jewish sacred sites.
But more than relations between Christianity and Judaism are under scrutiny.
To further complicate matters, Israel is the site of conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians, who have endured 50 years of Israeli occupation.
John Paul II supports a balanced approach, recognizing both Jewish rights to security in their homeland and the Palestinian people's legitimate claims, explained Signer.
"The pope is perceived by many in the Middle East as a friend of the Arab world, and of the Palestinians in particular," McBrien said.
The pontiff will meet privately with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and tour the Deheishah refugee camp.
Both McBrien and Signer cautioned against impossibly high expectations for the pope's travels. The trip is foremost a personal pilgrimage.
"It will be a spiritual journey for him — one filled with great meaning, given his age and state of health," McBrien said. "I do not expect any major breakthroughs of a religious or political kind."
The extensive attention the trip is receiving creates an impression that the visit will erase centuries of conflict. Nonetheless, the pope cannot work miracles.
"This man is a religious pilgrim whose desire is for peace," Signer said. "But it's really up to all the parties involved to make the peace."
All News Stories for Wednesday, March 22, 2000
