Illustration by Laura Hempel

The pope and his "red telephone".

The relationship between Jews and Christians, especially Catholics, has a long and complex history. Its improvement in the 20th century is down to the hard work of Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II towards reconciliation and good relations between the two congregations and the two states - the Vatican and Israel. During the post-war period, decisions made by the Second Vatican Council resolved the main conflict between the two religions, by liberating contemporary Jews from the guilt of killing Jesus Christ. It seemed that Pope Benedict XVI would go along this path, especially after his 2008 Pasha speech which promoted a "spirit of openness to the real possibilities of cooperation which we see before us as we contemplate the urgent needs of our world". He also visited Auschwitz and denounced Nazi ideology as insane. Many people who weren't well informed about his life and career were doubtful because of his Hitlerjugend related childhood. After all, we all did some bad things as children, but along with age and an important position comes a sense of responsibility for all our actions.

However, during the four years of his papacy thus far, we have witnessed a couple of the Pope's deeds which haven't matched his words. In 2007, he facilitated the reinstitution of the Tridentine Mass, which is openly offensive to the Jewish faith because it calls for the conversion of Jews. In 2008, there were rumours concerning his acceleration of the process of beatification of wartime Pope Pius XII, whose arguably insufficient action during the war has been and still is condemned by certain members of the public. This brings us close to the most recent and probably the biggest controversy: reinstating the four bishops of St. Pius X Society, one of whom denies that the Holocaust took place. St. Pius X is the only formal schismatic society in the Roman Catholic Church, excommunicated in 1998, because of their constant refusal of Vatican II decisions. The existence of this sect was a problem for the unity of the Catholic Church, so Benedict XVI just lifted the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated without legal Vatican permission. The above-mentioned bishop, Richard Williamson, had openly stated just a few days before that there had not been any gas chambers in World War II concentration camps, and that ‘only' a couple of hundred Jews were actually killed during the war. It seems that he is not the only one to have that attitude in this far-right and ultra-conservative society. And why is this a problem for other Europeans, and for a united Europe?

Well, the idea of such a Europe was formed after the Second World War, and one of the fundaments of its civilization was compassion and recognition of responsibility for the victims. The question of guilt is something that every modern European nation and its citizens had to face in the process of recovery and reconciliation with their former enemies and friends. The German case was certainly the hardest, but others (such as the Dutch, Polish and Yugoslavians) had their share, too. Even today the sense of responsibility lies heavily on us, as the hardest-learned lesson of tolerance. Denial of the Holocaust is a huge insult to European history and a serious threat to its future. We cannot ask the Pope to alter a bishop's free opinion, but I don't think all the Catholics in the world would want that kind of person to represent their faith.

Now, why is the Pope a flop? After all, he stated that he hadn't known of the bishop's statement. But is being unaware whilst taking this kind of action an excuse, or an even stronger argument in support of our accusation? Can the spiritual leader of such a great number of Europeans afford not to know what's going on in his backyard? Nevertheless, the Pope asserts that he believes the Holocaust happened and that it was a terrible thing. He repeated this assertion after the incident and the outrage it caused around the globe. Official reactions came from most of the Jewish communities, many statesmen and stateswomen (notably German chancellor Angela Merkel) and even some Catholic Church officials. The event also highlighted the disunity and lack of communication within Catholic administration. And the St. Pius X society remains excommunicated until it accepts the decisions of Vatican II. But how should we deal with the disparity between the Pope's words and his actions, and with his being uninformed? Should we give him another chance before pronouncing him a flop? By then, it might be too late...