International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, April 4, 2005

Pope John Paul II was "a man of peace, a friend of the Jewish people," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, as he offered the nation's condolences on the pope's death to the Christian community both in Israel and abroad.

Although he only met John Paul II once Sharon said that the pope told him "the Land of Israel is holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims but was promised only to the Jews."

With the passing of one of the longest papal tenures in history late Saturday night, many Israelis and Jews worldwide have echoed Sharon's words in remembering John Paul's remarkable record of fostering better Jewish-Christian relations, while recalling his own words that "he wished he could have done more" for the Jews in his native Poland during the Holocaust.

Faced the horrors of the Nazi genocide and the rebirth of national Israel, the landmark Second Vatican Council concluded in 1965 by introducing wide-ranging theological reforms in the church - ending Catholic teaching of contempt against the Jewish people and overturning replacement theology, which held that the Church has superseded the Jews as God's chosen instrument.

But John Paul II embodied the spirit of those reforms and took them further in his recognition of the Jewish people as our "elder brothers." Indeed, he did more to promote Christian reconciliation with the Jewish faith than perhaps all previous popes combined, as his personal witness of the Holocaust kindled a life-long, genuine attachment to the Jews.

He was the first pope to declare anti-Semitism a sin against God; the first to visit a synagogue; the first to commemorate the Holocaust inside the Vatican; the first to affirm the right of Jews to return to their ancient homeland; the first to pray at the Western Wall; and the first to confirm the enduring nature of God's covenants with the Jews. And it was under his leadership that the Vatican recognized the state of Israel - though not Jerusalem as its capital.

Even before his election as Pontiff, Karol Wojtyla, used his position as Archbishop of Kracow, to make a courageous stand against Soviet Communism and deserves a share in the credit for its eventual collapse during his papacy- an event that allowed nearly one million Russian-speaking Jews to make aliyah to Israel.

In the midst of the widespread vilification of Israel during the last four-and-a-half years of the armed Palestinian intifada, the Vatican under this pope also equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, thus rendering it a sin as well.

In addition, more Catholics are coming to terms with the theological understanding that God's enduring covenant with the Jews still includes a 'land' component. For instance, the pope began his historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000 by standing on Mt. Nebo in Jordan and praying: "From this mountain [Moses] looked out upon the land which you promised as an inheritance to the chosen people."

In this regard, the Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, considered a serious candidate to replace John Paul II, gave a strongly Zionist address in Jerusalem just this past week, saying, "Only once in human history did God take a country as an inheritance and give it to His chosen people." Schoenborn added that Pope John Paul II had himself declared the biblical commandment for Jews to live in Israel an everlasting covenant that remained valid today. Christians, Schoenborn said, should rejoice in the return of Jews to the Holy Land as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Nonetheless, the battle over this same land has also led the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of Pope John Paul II to be seen to adopt an even-handed policy in the Arab-Israeli conflict, working out a recognition accord with Israeli authorities while granting PLO chairman Yasser Arafat numerous papal audiences and granting formal recognition to the Palestinian Authority in 2000.

The pope even held an audience with Arafat in 1982, long before the PLO had renounced terrorism, while also meeting with known Nazi member Kurt Waldheim of Austria. In 2001 he also became the first Pope to visit a Mosque.

For many Jews there remain sincere, unresolved grievances against the Catholic Church that must still be addressed. But there is a consensus that this was a unique papacy, and apprehension about the future of Catholic-Jewish relations now that such a powerful voice in their favor is gone.

Copyright © 2005 International Christian Embassy Jerusalem