Since you asked..........
No recognition of the State of Israel until 1994.
Diplomatic relations is not the same as recognition. The Vatican always recognized Israel and Popes and high ranking clergy have met with Israeli leaders and PMs since Israel was founded. And you are right to criticize them for not establishing relations with them sooner. But I don't think their lack of recognition was rooted in anti-semitism. Alot of it had to do with the considerations of Catholics living in the Arab world. Having a the Catholic Church establish close ties with Israel could be death, literally, for many of those people. Alot of the hostility towards relations also involved control over Christian holy sites and favortism, real or perceived, towards the Orthodox Church by Israel. The Vatican also took many many years to establish formal diplomatic ties with the US, Mexico, Poland, Italy ect. Why did they do that? Given your logic I guess you would argue that the Vatican is anti-Catholic.
Constant demands for the surrender of Judea & Samaria.
I think you greatly exagerate the Vaticans enthusiasm. I am against the Vaticans position in regards to Judea and Samaria. But that is not an official Church teaching or an article of faith. And it is also the position of possibly most Israelis and is the official policy of the US, all Western nations and most of the world. To scapgoat the Vatican for this situation is ridiculous. The Vatican is wrong but that does not make it anti-semitic.
Demands for the internationalisation of Jerusalem.
The Vatican wanted an International Jerusalem in 1947 but has withdrawn that position.
And that's just on JP ll's watch.
Oh yeah. That great anti-semite and foe of Israel John Paul II
"one must understand that the Jews, who were dispersed throughout the world for two thousand years, had decided to return to the land of their forefathers. They have this right."~ John Paul II
"you are our brothers and, in a certain way, our dearly beloved older brothers." ~ John Paul II
"the Jews have a right to nationhood, as do all other peoples, according to international law." ~ John Paul II
"the Jewish people, after the tragic experiences linked to the slaughter of many of its sons and daughters, motivated by a desire for security, established the State of Israel." ~ John Paul II
On Israel 1984: "the desired security and tranquillity that are the prerogative of every nation, as well as required conditions for the life and progress of every society." ~ John Paul II
"Never again anti-Semitism, never again genocide," ~ John Paul II at the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
"Then came World War II, with the concentration camps and the planned extermination. First it was precisely the Jewish people who suffered this, solely because they were Jews. Anyone living in Poland at that time had contact with that reality, even if only indirectly....This was therefore my own experience, too; an experience that I carry within me to this day....Auschwitz, perhaps the most eloquent symbol of the Holocaust of the Jewish people, shows how far a system built on premises of racial hatred or a passion to dominate can lead a nation. Auschwitz continues to sound its warning to this day, reminding us that anti-Semitism is a grave sin against humanity; that every racial hatred inevitably leads to the infringement of human dignity.
There is no doubt that the Shoah still stands at the center of the Jewish people's agenda and should continue to stand at the center of the international community's agenda, especially in an effort to uproot any possibility of its repetition in the future. It is important to be aware of the sensitivity of the Jewish people: the wounds and scars of the Shoah are still fresh and painful in its body." ~ John Paul II
As for benny's criticism of nazism................he's a kraut AND a former hitler(Y'S) youth!
The current Pope is from Germany and at age 14, along with every other boy in Germany at the time, was compelled to join the Hitler Youth. Ratzingers family hated the Nazi's, his father was a vocal critic of the Nazi's because he believed, like John Paul II and many many others, that it conflicted with Catholic teachings. The family also hated the Nazi's because Ratzinger's 14 year old cousin who had downs syndrome had been murdered during the Nazi's eugenics campaign. Ratzinger refused to attend Hitler Youth meetings because they were held on Sundays and they conflicted with Church services- which was done deliberately by the Nazi's in order to get the youth to loose their Christian faith in favor of Nazi mysticism/paganism. Two years later he was drafted into the German air force, he saw no combat due to health reasons and as soon as the allies were near him abandoned his unit and soon became a priest. He is not now and never was a Nazi in any way, shape, or form. His only crime was being born in Germany in 1927.
Try reading what Benedict XVI has actually said about Judaism, Israel, and the Holocaust, as seen below, before calling him a Nazi. He was also the person behind the Vatican establishing formal relations with Israel.
Abraham, father of the people of Israel, father of faith, thus become the source of blessing, for in him all the families of the earth shall call themselves blessed. The task of the Chosen People is, therefore, to make a gift of their G-d � the one true G-d � to every other people; in reality, as Christians we are the inheritors of their faith in the one G-d. Our gratitude, therefore, must be extended to our Jewish brothers and sisters who, despite the hardships of their own history, have held on to faith in this G-d right up to the present, and who witness to it in the sight of those peoples who, lacking knowledge of the one G-d, dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Down through the history of Christianity, already-strained relations deteriorated further, even giving birth in many cases to anti-Jewish attitudes, which throughout history have led to deplorable acts of violence. Even if the most recent, loathsome experience of the Shoah was perpetrated in the name of an anti-Christian ideology, which tried to strike the Christian faith at its Abrahamic roots in the people of Israel it cannot be denied that a certain insufficient resistance to its atrocity on the part of Christians can be explained by an inherited anti-Judaism present in the hearts of not a few Christians.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this latest tragedy that a new vision of the relationship between the Church and Israel has been born: a sincere willingness to overcome every kind of anti-Judaism, and to initiate a constructive dialogue based on knowledge of each other, and on reconciliation. If such a dialogue is to be fruitful, it must begin with a prayer to our G-d, first of all that he might grant to us Christians a greater esteem and love for that people � the people of Israel � to whom belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; theirs are the patriarchs, and from them comes Christ according to the flesh, he who is over all, G-d, blessed forever. Amen. And this not only in the past, but still today, for the gifts and the call of G-d are irrevocable. In the same way, let us pray that he may grant also to the children of Israel a deeper knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth, who is their son, and the gift they have made to us. Since we are both awaiting the final redemption, let us pray that the paths we follow may converge.
It is evident that, as Christians, our dialogue with the Jews is situated on a different level than that in which we engage with other religions. The faith witnessed to by the Jewish Bible (The Tanach for Christians) is not merely another religion to us, but is the foundation of our own faith. Therefore, Christians � and today increasingly in collaboration with their Jewish sisters and brothers � read and attentively study these books of Sacred Scripture, as a part of their common heritage.
I'm still waiting to hear about those spooky Jesuits. And for you to give me one anti-semitic statement by Benedict XVI
Topic: vatican smoking gun... here we go again... (Read 14515 times)