wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Pope meets with Muslim, Jewish leaders

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Note #8860 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05435
August 22, 2005

Pontiff meets with Muslim, Jewish leaders

Benedict condemns terrorism, decries resurgence of European anti-Semitism

by Eric J. Lyman
Religion News Service
    
COLOGNE, Germany - Capping two days of interfaith meetings, Pope Benedict XVI
met on Saturday, Aug. 20 with leaders of Germany's fast-growing Muslim
community, one day after making a poignant visit to Cologne's synagogue. 
    
	Even the late John Paul II, who made interfaith outreach a hallmark
of his papacy, never made two such highly symbolic interfaith visits in as
many days. 
    
	The events were part of the Vatican's ongoing effort to reach out to
other faiths, a natural fit in Germany, where the Protestant Reformation
began nearly 500 years ago; where the Nazi Holocaust slaughtered 6 million
Jews; and whose Muslim population is now the fastest-growing in European
Union.

	During Saturday's meeting, the German-born pope was greeted by a
Muslim delegation led by Rydvan Cakir, president of the Turkish-Islamic Union
of the Institute of Religion. Benedict said later that he had told Muslim
leaders that they have a "great responsibility" to properly educate young
people about the evils of Muslim extremism.
    
	"I am certain that I echo your thoughts when I bring up the concern
of the spread of terrorism," Benedict said. "Terrorism is continually
reoccurring in various parts of the world, sowing death and destruction, and
plunging many of our dear brothers and sisters into grief and despair."
    
	However, he said he also tried to assuage fears that the battle
against Muslim extremism is a proxy for war between Christian and Muslim
civilizations. He called terrorists "barbarians" who do not represent Islam
as a whole.
    
	Afterward, Cakir issued a brief statement calling the meetings
"informative and worthwhile."
    
	The pontiff evidently avoided the prickly issues of Turkey's possible
membership in the European Union and the integration of Muslims into European
society.
    
	Islam is Europe's fastest-growing faith. Mostly because of increasing
immigration from Turkey, Muslims now number about 3.5 million in Germany
-approximately one for every seven Catholics. Some Germans blame the
fast-growing Muslim population for rising crime and unemployment.
	
	The issue of Turkey's membership in the European Union is a touchy
one for Benedict, who in the past, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, opposed
Turkey's membership in the predominantly Christian 25-nation bloc. He argued
then that multiculturalism is a way of "fleeing from what is one's own," and
he urged Europe to be true to its Christian roots. He once told the French
newspaper Le Figaro that "Turkey has always represented a different
continent, in permanent contrast to Europe."
    
	For 39-year-old Mohammed Zohir, a Turkish taxi driver who has lived
in Germany for eight years, the dialogue between Benedict and local Muslim
leaders was a positive step, although he said he doubts that it will have any
real impact on the day-to-day lives of European Muslims.
    
	"They can shake hands and take photographs," he said, "but I don't
know how they will make the average European more accepting of his brothers
from the East."
    
	Only slightly less relevant politically was Benedict's visit to
Germany's largest synagogue in Cologne. There, the pontiff, who in his youth
was briefly and unenthusiastically a member of the Hitler Youth movement and
the Nazi Army, decried the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and vowed to
improve relations between Jews and Catholics.
    
	Benedict is only the second pope ever to step foot inside a
synagogue. This visit, like John Paul's to the Rome synagogue 19 years ago,
was richly symbolic. Cologne's Jewish community, the oldest in Germany, was
nearly eliminated in the Holocaust. The synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis
but was rebuilt on the same spot.
    
	Inside, the first German pope in more than 500 years was greeted by a
choir singing "Shalom Alechem," or "Peace be With You." He then spoke about
brotherly love to a crowd of about 400 local Jews, including about 40
Holocaust survivors.
    
	"Today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of
anti-Semitism and other various forms of hostility toward foreigners," the
pontiff said, to a standing ovation. "... We need to show respect and love
for one another."

	The event was not without controversy. When Abraham Lehrer, a local
Jewish leader, urged Benedict to open secret Vatican archives that would shed
light on the church's role during World War II and the Holocaust, the pontiff
stood stone-faced and did not reply.
    
	Later, outside the synagogue, Benedict said that he would strive to
reach "a shared interpretation of disputed historical questions" - seemingly
a reference to the Vatican's secret files.
    
	The issue of relations between the Vatican and Nazi Germany has come
to the fore in recent years as historians have probed the life of Pope Pius
XII, who occupied the throne of St. Peter between 1939 and 1958. Critics say
he could have done more to stop the Holocaust, but his supporters argue he
skillfully walked a thin line between protecting Jews when possible and
angering the Germans, who could have destroyed the church.
    
	But some Jews in Cologne were touched by the powerful symbolism of
the day's events.
    
	"A lady with numbers on her arm, numbers that were given to her in
Auschwitz, could never have dreamed in 1944 that in 2005 her son, a rabbi,
would be greeted by a German pope at a German synagogue," Rabbi Netanel
Teitelbaum said, referring to his mother, his voice shaking with emotion.
    
	On Saturday, Benedict also met with German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and later with Angela Merkel, Schroeder's opponent in the Sept. 18
national elections. Merkel's aides reportedly demanded the meeting on the
grounds that talks with only Schroeder could give the liberal chancellor an
unfair boost in the upcoming elections.

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