wfn.org | [ICCI] Personal Reflection on the Passing of Pope John Paul II

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A Personal Reflection on the Passing of Pope John Paul II

April 3, 2005

by

Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish

Director, ICCI

On behalf of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel--Israel's 
national umbrella organization for interreligious and intercultural 
relations--I express our condolences to Catholics in Israel, in Vatican 
City and around the world. We join you in mourning the loss of a great 
world leader, a man of intense spirituality and commitment, a personality 
who communicated his love and caring and compassion for human beings around 
the world in an unprecedented manner in the history of world religious 
leadership.

Pope John Paul II understood the value and great strength of symbolic 
gestures. During his visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome in 1986, he said, 
"The Jewish religion is not extrinsic to us but in a way is intrinsic to 
our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we 
do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers, 
and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers." 
The visit of John Paul II to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in 
Jerusalem, where he shook hands with Holocaust survivors, including one 
whom he had help to save personally, will be remembered as one of the most 
moving moments of his pilgrimage to Israel in March 2000. Likewise, his 
visit to the Western Wall, where he put a prayer of atonement into a crack 
in the Wall, left indelible impressions on myself and upon Jews in Israel 
and all over the world, which will remain with us for many years and 
decades to come. Similarly, the Pope's visit to a mosque in Syria and his 
kissing the Holy Koran were gestures of good will deeply appreciated by 
Muslims.

I had occasion to meet Pope John Paul II on visits to the Vatican during 
recent years. In March 1998, I attended a seminar on "Education about Each 
Other" at the Vatican and was privileged to have my first "papal audience". 
In March 2000, ICCI was an active participant in welcoming Pope John Paul 
II to Israel when he made his historic pilgrimage. ICCI organized a series 
of briefings for the foreign and Israeli press on the major developments in 
Jewish-Christian Relations of the past 50 years, which led up to this 
ground-breaking visit. Struck by the fact that so few people knew anything 
about these developments, two Israeli filmmakers suggested that we make a 
documentary film on the subject. This led to the production of ICCI's 
award-winning film "I am Joseph Your Brother", which traces the 
revolutionary changes in relations between Catholics and Jews in our 
lifetime. Undoubtedly, Pope John Paul II played a major role in this 
historic rapprochement with Judaism, the Jewish People and the State of 
Israel during his papacy. I was privileged to personally hand the Pope a 
copy of the video, having been advised that he liked to watch videos of his 
travels around the world.

In addition, we remember the Pope's frequent calls for the need for peace 
and reconciliation in various places in the world, including and especially 
the Middle East. On his historic visit to the Holy Land, this indeed was 
one of his main messages, one that unfortunately was not heeded well or 
soon enough. Perhaps the current leadership in the Middle East is finally 
now moving in the right directions to implement the Pope's calls for 
peaceful coexistence and reconciliation in our region.

A righteous religious leader has gone to his eternal rest. May his memory 
be for a blessing for all humanity.

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Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish is the Director of the Interreligious Coordinating 
Council in Israel, ICCI. ICCI is the Israel chapter of the WCRP, the World 
Conference of Religions for Peace and the ICCJ, The International Council 
of Christians and Jews.