Reflections on the Vatican's 'Reflection on the Shoah.' - Roman Catholic document 'We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah'

In the closing paragraph of this troubling section, the document lists other horrors of this century, including the "massacre of the Armenians, . . . the Ukraine in the 1930s, the genocide of the Gypsies, . . . racist ideas in America, Africa, and the Balkans, . . . the millions of victims . . . in the Soviet Union, in China, Cambodia and elsewhere." This clutter of other tragic twentieth-century events weakens the intended power of the document. Instead of focusing solely on the Shoah, a kind of menu is presented that weakens the uniqueness of suffering in all of the examples cited. It seems to me each horrific event needs to be addressed on its own, not added to a genocidal stew of twentieth-century atrocities. This approach appears to suggest that the Shoah, an "indelible stain on the history" of this century, cannot be dealt with by and for itself. By cataloging other such fearful events of our time, We Remember runs the risk of minimizing them all.

The final sentence of this section is enigmatic and problematic. "Nor can we forget the drama of the Middle East, the elements of which are well known." Which elements? Which drama? Known to whom? Is this a form of compensation and recognition for the Palestinians who are currently engaged in a difficult peace process with Israel, the Jewish state that regained its independence only three years after the Shoah? Since We Remember is filled with empathy and solidarity with the Jewish people, did the Vatican authors feel it necessary to "balance" their extraordinary concern for Jews with a veiled acknowledgment of the Palestinians? Is this baffling sentence a back-hand slap at the policies of Israel? I sense that this entire paragraph, with its omnibus litany of horrors and its cryptic reference to the Arab-Israeli conflict, was tacked on to the original text by Vatican officials who were not among its original drafters.

The brief closing section urges Catholics and Jews to work together on issues of mutual concern, reaffirming Pope John Paul II's 1986 statement, made in Rome's Grand Synagogue, that Jews are "our elder brothers in faith." As a result of the Shoah, Catholics must also work to build a "new relationship" with the Jewish people, based on "deep respect and great compassion." The document expresses the church's "deep sorrow for the failures of her sons and daughters in every age. This is an act of repentance (teshuva), since . . . we are linked to the sins as well as the merits of all her [the Church's] children."

Unfortunately, this otherwise laudable section retains traces of an inaccurate moral equivalency. In the new century, "there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews, but rather a shared mutual respect. . . . "Surely, there is no comparison between Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism and anti-Christian feelings among Jews. The roles of victimizer and victim are not analogous; those roles as they have been played out throughout history demand careful clarification and not a facile balancing sentence.