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

Cross Currents, Winter, 1998 by A. James Rudin

I am deeply disappointed that the document is significantly weaker in tone and substance than the statements on the Shoah issued by the German bishops in 1995 and the French bishops in 1997. Those two documents, along with statements made by the bishops of the United States, Italy, and Poland, are landmark declarations in the long and painful Christian effort to come to terms in a spiritual and theological way with the evil of the Shoah. Some Vatican officials have publicly explained the obvious discrepancy between the vigorous national bishops' statements and the weaker Vatican statement by noting that We Remember is intended for the universal Church, even in those areas of the world with little or no Jewish population. They further state that it is precisely the bishops of Europe, the site of the Shoah, who are best qualified to address the terror of the 1930s and 1940s in all its aspects. In addition, the American bishops represent the nation that, along with its wartime allies, played a decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany.

Other Catholic leaders argue, however, that for millions of Catholics, especially in Asia and Africa, this document may be their only source of reliable information about Jews, Judaism, and the Shoah. Precisely because its audience is global, it should have been made as strong and unproblematic as possible.

We Remember is rich with remembrance of tragic history. It is abundant with calls for repentance; it is eloquent in its resolve to improve future Catholic-Jewish relations. But the fourth "r" of responsibility is inadequately and incompletely addressed. I find it revealing that this key word is found only once in the entire statement, not surprisingly in the pope's letter of contrition addressed to Cardinal Cassidy. ". . . The Church . . . encourages her sons and daughters . . . to place themselves humbly before the Lord and examine themselves on the responsibility which they too have for the evils of our time."

Because of the various limitations and problems of the Vatican document, it is extremely important that it not be the only resource on the Shoah for the world's Catholics. Appropriate new teaching materials, historical research, and liturgical forms are, urgently needed to augment and strengthen We Remember, which, taken by itself, is an inadequate teaching tool.

Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, a former president of the National Conference of Catholic bishops and a leader in the Catholic-Jewish encounter, and Dr. Eugene Fisher, the NCCB's Director of Catholic-Jewish Relations, recognized this need when on the day We Remember was published, they said: ". . . [W]e must commit our resources, our historians, sociologists, theologians, and other scholars, as the document mandates, to study together with their Jewish counterparts all the evidence with a view to the healing of memories, a reconciliation of history."

Will We Remember, which was so eagerly anticipated, stimulate the intensive Catholic study of "all the evidence" and the contemplation of the Shoah that is urgently required? Or will this well-intentioned but compromised and ambivalent document mark the formal conclusion of the church's exploration into the Shoah? Only time will tell.