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Pope Benedict XVI (R) is greeted by Michael Rado, Head of Cologne's Jewish community, during a visit to the city's synagogue
Photo: AFP
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In the week that the newly appointed Pope paid a historic visit to the Cologne synagogue, EJP spoke to Dr. Richard Prasquier, President of the French branch of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's Holocaust Museum.
Prasquier, a member of the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations CRIF and responsible for relations with Catholics, discussed the pontiff’s associations with the Jewish community and the significance of the synagogue visit.
Are the questions about Benedict XVI’s past with the Nazi Youths cleared and answered?
I think that Benedict XVI’s youth was a very important phase in his life which helped him become more vigilant toward anti-Semitism. It is something that marked his childhood. Just like John Paul II, those two men lived during World War II, they experienced it. This influenced them in adopting strong positions against anti-Semitism, not stances coming from a theoretic perspective, but rather stances coming from the experience they lived in the past.
It should be also clear that Benedict XVI was for a long time an influential person in the Vatican and his positions against Nazism and anti-Semitism have not only appeared since his election as Pope last April.
In Germany during the early years of Hitler’s power, anyone who was born at the same time as Benedict XVI, went through the Nazi Youth and endured the same Nazi propaganda.
Furthermore, the people who started this polemic against Benedict XVI, would have just done the same if they were the same age during the same times.
What does the Pope’s visit to Cologne Synagogue means?
Benedict XVI visit to Cologne’s synagogue has a strong symbolic meaning. Cologne is an important city in Jewish history and in German Judaism. There has been a Jewish presence in the city for hundreds of years. Jews lived in the city during the times of the Roman Empire, and later Jews suffered from actions against them during the crusades. More recently, it is a city that experienced and kept a lot of traces from the Kristalnacht - the pogrom against Jews that took place throughout Germany on the night of the 9th-10th November 1938.
Cologne’s historical importance combined with the ongoing World Youths Day gives even more importance to the Pope’s synagogue visit. It sends a very strong message.
Do you think this visit is the beginning of a new step in the relations between the Vatican and Jewish communities?
I think the steps you mention, these historic phases, already happened. I think the most important step that happened is the visit of John Paul II to the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem in 2000.
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John Paul II at Rome's synagogue in 1986 |
What’s important in this visit is the fact it underlines the continuation of John Paul II‘s vision. Those visits to synagogues, those ties with Jewish communities are not only the actions John Paul. His vision was shared by others, especially by the new Pope Benedict XVI, who follows the same path.
This visit is a confirmation of the path that the Church took on several years ago.
What is also important is that those relations are becoming friendlier and serener between people from different communities, which is not always spectacular.
However, the fact that those relations are becoming deeper is extremely useful, which helps to appease some fears we could have from the other. I see this visit as a step in the strengthening and deepening of the relations. It is a step in the road that will push us to know each other better and to push us to make a little effort to the other side.
