JERUSALEM (CWNews.com) - In an emotional appearance at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Pope John Paul II emphasized that«the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place.»
Early in the morning of March 23, the Holy Father met with Israeli President Ezer Weizman to discuss the peace process. The meeting was friendly, and the Pope smiled readily as he met with Weizman and his wife.
But as he arrived at Yad Vashem, the Pontiff's face was grave. He stopped to pray in silence for several moments before laying a floral wreath in front of an eternal flame in the memorial's Hall of Remembrance. Accompanied by Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the Pope also met with a number of Holocaust survivors. Among the several hundred people present for the occasion was Jerzy Kluger, a Jewish boyfriend friend of the Pope's. Many of the spectators wept freely as the Pope completed his tour and made his remarks. «In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence,» the Pope remarked. «Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah.»
Recalling that he had lived with Jewish friends and neighbors as a young boy, and seen many of them disappear, the Pope continued: «I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who-- stripped of everything, especially of human dignity-- were murdered in the Holocaust. More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain.»
The Pope continued: «No one can forget or ignore what happened. No one can diminish its scale. We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism.»
Implicitly rejecting the widespread complaint that the Holocaust was a consequence of Christian contempt for the Jews, the Pope asked: «How could man have such utter contempt for man?» Then he answered his own question: «Because he had reached the point of contempt for God. Only a godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people.»
The Pope praised the Christians-- recognized in Yad Vashem as the «righteous Gentiles»-- who had helped to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Then he added: «In this place of solemn remembrance, I fervently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people suffered in the 20th century will lead to a new relationship between Christians and Jews.»
«Only a world at peace, with justice for all, can avoid repeating the mistakes and terrible crimes of the past,» the Pope said. «Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti- Christian feeling among Jews.»
In his official response to the Pope's remarks, Prime Minister Barak praised John Paul, saying «You have done more than anyone else to bring about the historic change in the attitude of the Church toward the Jewish people, and to dress the gaping wounds that festered over many bitter centuries.»
Catholic World News Service - Vatican Update