Renewed Catholic-Jewish relations still with a blemish

It is a good sign we may find some trials of the new pope, Francis I, to bring the monotheist faithgroups Jews Christians and Muslims closer to each other again.

The Jews of Antwerpen (Photo credit: CharlesFred)

Catholic-Jewish relations for sure need some boost now we can see many fundamentalist groups trying to undermine such relations and trying to bring more extreme right-wing thoughts in the forefront. In Western Europe we might see again a growing anti-Semitism and a growing hate against Muslims. That hate is mostly triggered by fundamentalist faith-groups giving their 'religion' a bad name.

The world should always remember that the minority faith where people only wanted to honour Only One God Who created heaven and earth, suffered centuries of persecution. The world was warned already in the old days, many centuries before Jesus was born, that those people were the chosen people of God, but would also have to suffer much because of their choice. Also Jeshua, the Nazarene Jew warned his followers they should know when they would like to follow him, they would be a target of spot and bullying. Followers of Christ would in case they originally did not belong to the People Israel, also be taken up in the Family of God. But that would mean they also as part of the Body of Christ, would be part of God's people and would have to suffer likewise. though they may become protected more than those who did not accept the Messiah.

The Jews would have to live in ghettos and face the horrors of the Holocaust. Christians were persecuted but Jews were more and still are persecuted and shunned.

It is a pity the Jews have one distorted picture of the Christians, because they always see the majority of them being Trinitarians often raging against Jews. It is true when they say Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism, because Jeshua (Jesus Christ) was a Jew, who never intended to make an other religion. After the church leaders of followers of that Jew made a bond with the men in power they took on the Greek-roman cultur with its many gods and holy days. they made Jeshua part of a three-une god like in the pagan cultures and as one bigger group they formed Christendom that became the main religion across Europe. It was that group which treated the tiny minority that did not follow Jesus as a tri-une god with persecution, exclusion and expulsion. Many Christians and Jews found their death as other people who did not want to confirm to the doctrines of that church.

Archbishop Angelo Roncalliin Worl War II was using his wartime post as Vatican ambassador in Istanbul to run a network of nuns, diplomats and other people to issue forged visas and baptismal and immigration certificates to Jews from the Balkans to get them to Turkey and then to British-mandate Palestine.
Later as Pope John XXIII he modernised the Roman Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), whose landmark document "Nostra Aetate" (In Our Times) repudiated the 2,000-year-old concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus.

Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Inter-religious Affairs of American Jewish Committee, said:

"Nostra Aetate ushered in amazing changes in Catholic-Jewish relations around the world, even if the degree to which it was internalized depended on whether Catholics and Jews lived side by side." 

Today we can see a lesser nice site of that Roman Catholic Church which got several of its members really helping Jews out of love for the children of God. But some of them also could have taken action and used the situation to 'win more souls' for the 'good faith'.

Harold Pollack writes:

A great many individual Catholics, priests, nuns, bishops, and others acted heroically to save Jews and to oppose Hitler. To pick one example among many, Archbishop Jean-Geraud Saliege of Toulouse bluntly declared that ”the Jews are our brothers, like so many others, and no Christian can forget this fact.” The Archbishop said this from the pulpit, in 1942, in the middle of occupied Europe. He was not alone in such heroism.

Unfortunately, as an institution the Catholic Church, particularly Pope Pius XII, spectacularly failed. The Church bears general responsibility and (in many cases) specific guilt both its failure to intervene and for particular actions taken against Jews.

Not many Catholics shamed themselves for certain actions taken by their church against people of other faiths. Several Roman Catholics became right wing fighters against those who did not want to come to the real faith of the god son Jesus. All others where considered blasphemous, and the Jews traitors to God. Many in charge of that Roman Catholic Church did not want to react against the way some of their flock were thinking. For years the West could see what was going on in Germany, but not many reacted against the genocide taking place.

Pope Pius XII called Pastor Angelicus, was the most Marian Pope in Church history. Bäumer, Marienlexikon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As head of the Chruch you would think Popes Pius XI and Pius XII could do something against the Nazi doctrine, but they failed to plainly condemn Nazism and specific genocide against Jews (and others). From historical sources we know that diplomats representing France, Poland, Brazil, the United States, and Britain approached the Vatican more than once with the request that the Pope specifically denounce Nazi crimes against Jews. British diplomat Francis D’Arcy Osborne, wrote:

A policy of silence in regard to such offences against the conscience of the world must necessarily involve a renunciation of moral leadership and a consequent atrophy of the influence and authority of the Vatican…

Terrible was it when after the war the Catholic Church did not enough to bring the Jewish kids back to their family or did not allow them to keep their faith. Instead they tried to keep them away from their faith.

Harold Pollack  in his article The Pope at Yad Vashem writes:

Some misdeeds continued beyond the war. Jewish children were hidden in Catholic homes or religious institutions during the war. When children were baptized, the Church sometimes deliberately obstructed their return to surviving Jewish relatives. As one notorious 1946 memorandum directed:

1) Avoid, as much as possible, responding in writing to Jewish authorities, but rather do it orally.

2) Each time a response is necessary, it is necessary to say that the Church must conduct investigations in order to study each case individually.

3) Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to institutions that would not be in a position to guarantee their Christian upbringing.

4) For children who no longer have their parents, given the fact that the Church has responsibility for them, it is not acceptable for them to be abandoned by the Church or entrusted to any persons who have no rights over them, at least until they are in a position to choose themselves. This, evidently, is for children who would not have been baptized.

5) If the children have been turned over by their parents, and if the parents reclaim them now, providing that the children have not received baptism they can be given back.

It is to be noted that this decision of the Holy Congregation of the Holy Office has been approved by the Holy Father.

This stain can not be wiped out. It is a blot on the Roman Catholic Church its escutcheon. Trying to keep the children away from their original family and original faith, this intentionally done, is a sin. You may say the Church had a responsibility to those who it could save from the horror of the Nazi's, but it did not give them the right to take away all the grounds to restore their original faith.

To claim those children who lost their family and who were baptised, was not respecting the will of the deceased family members. The parents would have loved to see their children saved in the faith, not given them over to an other religious group to have them unwillingly be reformed in that other faith.

Naturally it would be wrong to take Pope Francis I accountable for what happened in the 1930s -1960s. He bears no personal stain for actions undertaken almost seventy years ago.

Some Christians do not seem to like what he is doing the last few weeks, which shows how there are still too many Christians who do not want to see their connection with the Jews, and how many still consider a whole people guilty for what some of their folks did. It would be the same as the Jews would consider all Christians guilty for killing so many Jews. The same with the Muslims, too many Christian are generalising the Islamic community, equalising them all with those lunatic fundamentalists. You also could say it would be the same if we all would consider the Christians on the same line as some freaky fundamentalist Christians like the Westboro Church a.o.

We should welcome Pope Francis I his efforts to helpfully mediate the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis even at a time when still a debt remains unacknowledged and unpaid.

Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee’s director of international interreligious affairs and former head of the IJCIC, welcomed the Pope’s speech as conciliatory.

“Pope Francis is a very good friend of the Jewish people, and we rejoice in the fact that he will continue to advance the path of his predecessors in deepening the Catholic-Jewish relationship.”

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  The leaders will recite applicable passages from their respective holy books.
  Peres confirmed the delegation representing Israel will include influential citizens from the Jewish, Muslim, and Druze communities. Abbas will reportedly likewise include Christians in his delegation.
  Out of respect for Jewish religious culture, the gathering will not be held in a venue dedicated to prayer but in an unadorned garden at the Vatican. Viewers around the world will be able to witness the interfaith event via a live broadcast.
  
• Fearing violence, Jewish authorities ask Catholics to take down welcome sign for Pope Francis (patheos.com)
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• Pope says antisemitism 'not Christian' (thejc.com)
  Pope Francis, who previously served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, said that during his time in Argentina, Catholics and Jews “enjoyed each other’s company.
  “We were all enriched through encounters and dialogue. We welcomed each other, and this helped all of us grow as people and as believers.”
  
• Doc's Talk: Why the Jews ??? Part 1 Understanding the root of the world&?39;s longest hatred. (docstalk.blogspot.com)
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  Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics,
  and the Catholics hate the Protestants,
  and the Hindus hate the Muslims
  and everybody hates the Jews.

  In this song, Lehrer expresses the truism that hatred for the Jew is uniquely commonplace. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, blood libels, pogroms, countless expulsions and the systematic murder of 6 million.
  The question is: Why? What lies behind these millennium of hatred? Why has the undercurrent of anti-Semitism bubbled and boiled and exploded against Jews everywhere, time and again throughout history?
  In this 8-part seminar, we will examine the root reason for the world's longest hatred.

Faith antithesis of rationality

03.365 (02.08.2009) Faith (Photo credit: hannahclark)

People may find it not important how 'the belief' is first acquired.

Many Christians may be persuaded by arguments of some theological writers or some popular figures like C. S. Lewis, or in certain circles much spoken off people like William Lane Craig, or Alvin Plantinga.

The problem for someone first persuaded by these conjurers of religious apologetics arises when they become so convinced that they stop using reason and turn to faith as the final arbiter of what they believe.

Some people may go one way, than an other way and never become sure what to believe or having always doubts. Others may be strongly convinced of certain believes and would like to see others to take over their believes, but this more because than they can be confirmed in their believes.

In the world of so called religious people e can find many sorts adhering many denominations. Sceptics would say that once a person does resort to faith the reasoning capacity becomes limited, because faith is always supposed to override, surmount, be better than reason. Many religions rely on the fact that they have something to offer to the people living in this world. Some religions offer their followers a better life in an other stadium, be it returning again on this earth under an other form or be it going to live in a place called heaven.

You could call 'Faith' the antithesis of rationality, because it demands a believe in things we rationally can't declare. Faith is what you use when you want to believe something, or are otherwise driven to hold a belief. For some faith is the position to be in or the action to undertake when there is no reason or evidence to support the belief. And faith can result in belief in spite of counter evidence and reason. This makes it very difficult to get people to see certain things which could be otherwise than they assume.

Many would argue that there is no logical reason for supposing anything exists that we cannot experience directly or test for in some way. As human beings we can look around us and question the existence of all those things we can see, hear and feel. We can not escape being an element in space which has to undergo certain actions in this world. Some happenings we may steer, but others are totally out of our control. By all those things which happen around us we ask many questions. Several people may form good ideas and bring plausible solutions. By those who offer others their ideas, there are some who really want to impose their thinking to others without objection. Many Christian religious people do not want to allow arguments to come their way. Others evoke protest.

By the 41,000 denominations of Christianity in the world, only a few are known by the general public, and most people do assume that the bigger denominations are the only ones which are right. some like the Roman Catholic Church say that because they are the biggest denomination in Christendom this is also a proof that they are the only right Universal Church  of God. In the West it is Catholic tradition which formed the tradition of the people, which is often a mixture of heathen traditions with church teachings. Many people are proud of their Western roots of Judeo Christian values.

But by those who call themselves Christians, what should mean "Followers of Christ Jesus" the respect for other Christians does not show real brotherhood and often makes you even wonder if they are following the same Master Teacher. When we look at forums or look at the reactions on blogs we do find that there’s no shortage of mudslinging across the ideological divides of religion.

When you hear such persons who call them self saved by the Saviour you would think they will be pleased to live according to the teachings of that person and follow him in his ways. When that person in the early years of this common era  spoke about the way how to behave, you would think his followers would follow that advice this wise man gave. Jesus of Nazareth presented  a way of life. He gave us the study of action with respect to the good for humans, which is happiness. So you would think that once people got to study those teachings and came to understand them, they would follow those directions of ethics. You would think those people their eyes would be opened and that they would accept that all people were made in the image of God, so should all have elements of that God in them. You would also think they would become respectful for all those, who are allowed by the creator God to be here on this earth.

Why is it then that so many who call themselves Christian fight against other Christians, and call each other names, children's ears would better not hear?

Would they not prefer to live in a peaceful world? Would they not do everything to get all different people to live together in the best circumstances? Would they not want to become a more excellent, happier human being?

Please do find out more about it in:

1. Caricaturing and disapproving sceptics, religious critics and figured out ethics
2.  Catholicism, Anabaptism and Crisis of Christianity
3. Morality, values and Developing right choices
4. Are religious and secular ethicists climbing the same mountain
5. Being religious has benefits even in this life
6. History of Christianity  
7. Christianity is a love affair

 +++

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• Preparing for a future with a mixed-faith education
• Lara Buchak replies: faith can be rational
• Sensus Divinitatis: Nagel Defends Plantinga Against Grayling
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Pope Benedict XVI resigns

Benedict XVI (2005-present, Episcopal form of Papal arms) An alternate version with Papal Tiara: here (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday the Vatican has confirmed that Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger's papacy began in 2005 will come to an end at the end of the month, because Pope Benedict XVI is to resign. This is reportedly only the second time a head of the Catholic church has stepped down. The last time was nearly 600 years ago.

Cardinal Raffaele Farina, emeritus prefect of the Apostolic Library, said: "We were all taken by surprise, nobody had expected it. Many faces in the room were streaked with tears."

"We were amazed by the Holy Father's decision," said Paolo Romeo, the archbishop of Palermo. "But it is a choice that deserves respect and shows his profound love for the Church."

French cardinal Poupard said he and his colleagues had been called to what they thought was a routine event in the Vatican's Sala del Concistoro in the Apostolic Palace, next to St Peter's Square.
But at the end of the meeting, they were asked to sit down again and it was then that the Pope gave his declaration, announcing that he would step down on Feb 28 because of his age and dwindling strength.
"I understood from the very first words and I said 'My God'," Cardinal Poupard, a former Vatican culture minister, told Le Figaro.
"As it went on, I saw the faces opposite me express astonishment, stupor. The whole thing lasted a few minutes at most," he said.
"Then the Pope left with his usual discretion and restraint, leaving us all very moved in the face of this exceptional and historic decision."

This Wednesday morning looking tired but serene, Pope Benedict XVI told thousands of faithful that he was stepping down for "the good of the church," speaking in his first public appearance since dropping the bombshell announcement of his resignation.

Pope Benedictus XVI (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 85-year-old Benedict basked in more than a minute-long standing ovation when he entered the packed audience hall for his traditional AshWednesday general audience. He was interrupted by applause by the thousands of people, many of whom had tears in their eyes.

A huge banner reading "Grazie Santita" (Thank you Your Holiness) was strung up at the back of the hall.

Benedict's final public appearances are expected to draw great crowds, as they may well represent some of the last public speeches for a man who has spent his life — as a priest, a cardinal and a pope — teaching and preaching.

A Flemish delegation of pilgrims will be some of the last people to get a private audience coming Friday.


Yesterday on many television programs that seemed the only main news of the day and they talked for hours about this decision and about the possibility for change in the Roman Catholic Church recognising it has more members out of Europe than on this part of the planet earth.

For centuries the Catholics claim that Jesus pronounced that Peter had to be the leader of the church.For them he became the first "Pope" and all the pastors who leaded the Catholic chuch after him where followers of that first Pope and had the power received from God to speak without fault or to be infallible on belief matters.

We do have to question if it can be that human people can speak without error. Is it really that God apointed unerring people to be in charge of the Church of God?

Our fellow brethren of Blackpool Street, Burton on Trent ask in The Pope Resigns to do a careful reading of what is being sayd in the Holy Scriptures when Jesus speaks about the work that has to be done and about the faith his pupils do have to have. Jesus is actually saying in Matthew 16v15-19 that the rock on which the church is built is his confession and understanding of who Jesus is .

When we look at the book of Acts we also can clearly see that Peter is not the leader of the apostles. We also get to see that even the new convert who wrote so many important letters, Paul, did not get the leading role, though at some point he rebuked Peter (Galatians 2:11) James also was a co-brother of equal statue and duties with Peter.

We also may not forget that when Jesus was questioned about who would be the leader after Jesus he told them that they would have to be equal and be happy that they could do some duties in the Church, each to their own possibilities, in humbleness and love for each other.

Please continue reading: The Pope Resigns

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Manna from Sint Nicholas

The Roman Catholic Church has managed to mint money out of the legacy of a man who died in 343 A.D.  Because when his skull and bony remains was removed from a tomb in 1950, the Catholics claimed liquid came from the dry bones. This liquid is only collected on the feast day of Nicholas, which is December 6th. The liquid is called “manna”, and is sold on bottles as miraculous water.
Read more:

The skull of Catholic “Santa” has a boken nose

Commitment to Christian unity

When the pope, at Westminster Abbey in London where he participated in an ecumenical celebration of Vespers on September 17, said:   "Our commitment to Christian unity is born of nothing less than our faith in Christ. ... It is the reality of Christ's person, His saving work and above all the historical fact of His resurrection, which is the content of the apostolic 'kerygma' and those credal formulas which, beginning in the New Testament itself, have guaranteed the integrity of its transmission. The Church's unity, in a word, can never be other than a unity in the apostolic faith, in the faith entrusted to each new member of the Body of Christ during the rite of Baptism. It is this faith which unites us to the Lord". did he wanted all around to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only apostolic church?

Speaking for a trinitarian public he could further say: "I come here today as a pilgrim from Rome, to pray before the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor and to join you in imploring the gift of Christian unity. May these moments of prayer and friendship confirm us in love for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and in common witness to the enduring power of the Gospel to illumine the future of this great nation". Because we think he would not like to see the non-trinitarian Christians in unity with their church.

Important to remember is: "Here we cannot help but be reminded of how greatly the Christian faith shaped the unity and culture of Europe and the heart and spirit of the English people. Here too, we are forcibly reminded that what we share, in Christ, is greater than what continues to divide us".
Benedict XVI recalled how this year marks the centenary of the modern ecumenical movement which "began with the Edinburgh Conference's appeal for Christian unity as the prerequisite for a credible and convincing witness to the Gospel in our time. In commemorating this anniversary, we must give thanks for the remarkable progress made towards this noble goal through the efforts of committed Christians of every denomination. At the same time, however, we remain conscious of how much yet remains to be done. In a world marked by growing interdependence and solidarity, we are challenged to proclaim with renewed conviction the reality of our reconciliation and liberation in Christ, and to propose the truth of the Gospel as the key to authentic and integral human development".

You can wounder what the Church's unity should be. Is a unity in the apostolic faith not to believe what the apostles themseves believed? And would this not mean that all Christians should keep to the first centuries believe of those who really  knew Jesus from first hand? But more important should Christians not go back to their leader they are proclaiming to follow?

Normally we all should strive to Christian unity, but we should be following all that Jesus asked us to do. We should keep to the tasks he gave to his disciples. In case Trinitarian Christians would like to their idea that Jesus is also God they should also accept those who keep to the words of Jesus and his Holy Father. In the Holy Scriptures their relationship is clearly described.

The Vatican see themselves as the “mother” church. The universal church. The word Catholic means “universal”. They see other Christian churches as wayward daughters that need to be brought back under her wings. The Pope’s ambition therefore is to become head of all Christian religion. But do we not have to look at what the Scriptures gave as warning to the next generations? Revelation 17:2 says that the “kings of the earth” have committed fornication with the harlot woman of Rome.

What happened yesterday is important for Christians to see in the light of the Bible.
As the Anglicans and Catholics all sang together in London (latter day Tyre) we heard not joyful words but the singing of “an harlot” as prophesied in Isaiah 23. “Tyre shall sing as an harlot”. The singing which began in 1996/7 is reaching a crescendo. The judgement of latter day Tyre will soon come. The next chapter says “the noise of them that rejoice endeth…” Isaiah 24:8

Get to know more in the  Weekly World Watch 12th - 18th Sept 2010‏

History of Christianity

Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch - one of the world's leading historians - reveals the origins of Christianity and explores what it means to be a Christian on BBC 4 and Last broadcast on Saturday on BBC Two.

When Diarmaid MacCulloch was a small boy, his parents used to drive him round historic churches. Little did they know that they had created a monster, with the history of the Christian Church becoming his life's work.
In a series sweeping across four continents, Professor MacCulloch goes in search of Christianity's forgotten origins. He overturns the familiar story that it all began when the apostle Paul took Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. Instead, he shows that the true origins of Christianity lie further east, and that at one point it was poised to triumph in Asia, maybe even in China.
The headquarters of Christianity might well have been Baghdad not Rome, and if that had happened then Western Christianity would have been very different.

2. Catholicism: The Unpredictable Rise of Rome
Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch's grandfather was a devout pillar of the local Anglican church and felt that any dabbling in Catholicism was liable to pollute the English way of life. But now Professor's grandfather isn't around to stop him exploring the extraordinary and unpredictable rise of the Roman Catholic Church.
Over one billion Christians look to Rome, more than half of all Christians on the planet. But how did a small Jewish sect from the backwoods of 1st-century Palestine, which preached humility and the virtue of poverty, become the established religion of western Europe - wealthy, powerful and expecting unfailing obedience from the faithful?
Amongst the surprising revelations, MacCulloch tells how confession was invented by monks on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, and how the Crusades gave Britain the university system.
Above all, it is a story of what can be achieved when you have friends in high places.

3. Orthodoxy - From Empire to Empire
Today, Eastern Orthodox Christianity flourishes in the Balkans and Russia, with over 150 million members worldwide. It is unlike Catholicism or Protestantism - worship is carefully choreographed, icons pull the faithful into a mystical union with Christ, and everywhere there is a symbol of a fierce-looking bird, the double-headed eagle. What story is this ancient drama trying to tell us?
In the third part of his journey into the history of Christianity, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch charts Orthodoxy's extraordinary fight for survival. After its glory days in the eastern Roman Empire, it stood right in the path of Muslim expansion, suffered betrayal by crusading Catholics, was seized by the Russian tsars and faced near-extinction under Soviet communism.
MacCulloch visits the greatest collection of early icons in the Sinai desert, a surviving relic of the iconoclastic crisis in Istanbul and Ivan the Terrible's cathedral in Moscow to discover the secret of Orthodoxy's endurance.

1. Sat 30 Jan 2010:18:30 bij ons 19.30
   BBC Two (England, Northern Ireland only)
2. Sun 31 Jan 2010
   02:30
   BBC Two (Wales only)

- BBC


>

+ > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C_05Ej9BNI

Babylon is fallen

A Woman Rides the Beast - Dave Hunt

Are you missing half the story about the last days?

Most of the discussion of the end times focuses on the coming Antichrist - but he is only half the story. Many are amazed to discover in Revelation 17 that there is also another mysterious character at the heart of prophecy - a woman who rides the beast. Who is the woman? Tradition says she is connected with the church of Rome. But isn't such a view outdated? After all, today's Vatican is eager to join hands with evangelicals [unchanging Rome has changed again] and all religions worldwide. "The Catholic church has changed." is what we hear. Or has it? In "A Woman Rides the Beast", biblical truth and global events present a well - defined portrait of the woman and her powerful place in the Antichrist's future empire. At least ten remarkable clues in Revelation 17 and 18 prove the woman's identity beyond any reasonable doubt.

 The Berean Call PO Box 7019 Bend OR 97708-7019
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