VATICAN (AFP-EJP)---An Israeli rabbi who made an unprecedented address to Catholic bishops added his voice to Jewish opposition to the beatification of Nazi-era pope Pius XII, in remarks published Tuesday.
"We oppose the beatification of Pius XII. We cannot forget his silence on the Holocaust," Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Haifa, said.
"He should not be seen as a model and he should not be beatified because he did not raise his voice against the Holocaust. He didn't speak because he was afraid or for other personal reasons," the rabbi said.
"He may have helped in secrecy many of the victims and many of the refugees but the question is could he have raised his voice and would it have helped or not? We, as the victims, feel the answer is yes, and I am not empowered by the families of the millions of deceased to say we forget, we forgive," said Cohen, who is a member of Israel’s chief rabbinate's commission for relations with the Vatican.
Cohen, who became Monday the first Jew to address a synod of Catholic bishops, the supreme representative body of the Catholic Church, said his presence sent a "signal of hope" after a history of "blood and tears" between Christians and Jews.
He noted efforts to improve relations that began under Pope John XXIII and that reached a climax under John Paul II.
The rabbi was invited to speak about the significance of the Torah for the Jewish people.
Launched in 1967 and close to completion, the process of beatifying Pius XII -- which would place him one step away from sainthood -- has sparked bitter debate and tensions between Catholics and Jews.
Opponents, including the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, accuse Pius, who headed the Roman Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958, of remaining silent during the Holocaust that killed more than six million Jews.
Bitter debate
Supporters, including the US-based Pave the Way foundation that organised a symposium on the issue last month, claim the pope worked intensively to save Jews and is the victim of a slander campaign.
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'Pius XII should not be seen as a model and he should not be beatified because he did not raise his voice against the Holocaust.'
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Last year, Pope Benedict XVI created a special commission to study the question of his beatification.
The pontiff praised Pius in September for "not sparing his efforts" to save Jews from extermination.
There were rumors that Cohen's precedent-setting invitation to address the synod was aimed at balancing out the expected Jewish opposition to the decision to beatify Pius XII.
In his address to the 253 bishops from across the world, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen also condemned the Iranian president's attacks on Israel.
He did not name Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but denounced "the terrible and vicious words" spoken by "the president of a certain state in the Middle East" at the United Nations General Assembly last month.
Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israel and accused "Zionists" of controlling the world's economy. The speech drew harsh condemnations by Israeli and Jewish leaders.
Cohen said the "false and malicious accusations" were an incitement to anti-Semitism and brought back to us the painful memory of the tragedy of our people, the victims of the Holocaust."
He added: "We hope to get your help as religious leaders ... to protect, defend and save Israel ... from the hands of its enemies."
Earlier Monday, the bishops stressed the importance of dialogue with Jews and Muslims.
"Today, bearing in mind the tragic history of the relations between Israel and the Church, we are invited ... to repair any injustice committed against the Jews," Quebec Archbishop Marc Ouellet told the bishops at the three-week gathering.
The synod, the second such gathering to be presided over by Benedict since his election in 2005, will discuss Christian fundamentalism and the relationship between religion and science as well as Judaism and Islam.