dantes76
02-04-2010, 23:00
Ma il paragone non piace ai gruppi ebraici: «Vergogna». Poi la Santa Sede smentisce
«Attacchi al Papa come l'antisemitismo»
Il predicatore della Casa Pontificia: «I fratelli ebrei sanno cosa significa essere vittime di violenza collettiva»
Ma il paragone non piace ai gruppi ebraici: «Vergogna». Poi la Santa Sede smentisce
«Attacchi al Papa come l'antisemitismo»
Il predicatore della Casa Pontificia: «I fratelli ebrei sanno cosa significa essere vittime di violenza collettiva»
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Padre Raniero Cantalamessa, predicatore della Casa Pontificia (Ap)
CITTÀ DEL VATICANO - Padre Raniero Cantalamessa, il predicatore della Casa Pontificia, ha citato durante una cerimonia a San Pietro alla presenza di papa Ratzinger una lettera di un suo amico ebreo che esprime solidarietà al pontefice e afferma che gli attacchi collettivi alla Chiesa per gli scandali di pedofilia gli ricordano «gli aspetti più vergognosi dell'antisemitismo». «Per una rara coincidenza, quest'anno la nostra Pasqua cade nelle stessa settimana della Pasqua ebraica che ne è l'antenata e la matrice dentro cui si è formata», ha ricordato padre Cantalamessa nell'omelia durante il rito della «Passione del Signore». «Questo - ha aggiunto il frate - ci spinge a rivolgere un pensiero ai fratelli ebrei. Essi sanno per esperienza cosa significa essere vittime della violenza collettiva e anche per questo sono pronti a riconoscerne i sintomi ricorrenti».
«ATTACCO CONCENTRICO» - «Ho ricevuto in questi giorni - ha proseguito - la lettera di un amico ebreo e, con il suo permesso, ne condivido qui una parte. Dice: "Sto seguendo con disgusto l'attacco violento e concentrico contro la Chiesa, il Papa e tutti i fedeli da parte del mondo intero. L'uso dello stereotipo, il passaggio dalla responsabilità e colpa personale a quella collettiva mi ricordano gli aspetti più vergognosi dell'antisemitismo. Desidero pertanto esprimere a lei personalmente, al Papa e a tutta la Chiesa la mia solidarietà di ebreo del dialogo e di tutti coloro che nel mondo ebraico (e sono molti) condividono questi sentimenti di fratellanza"».
LE REAZIONI DEI GRUPPI EBRAICI - La citazione, che ha presto fatto il giro del mondo, non è però piaciuta a diversi gruppi ebraici che considerano inaccettabile il paragone con le vittime dell'Olocausto. «E’ ripugnante, osceno e soprattutto offensivo nei confronti di tutte le vittime degli abusi così come nei confronti di tutte le vittime del’olocausto - ha commentato con l'Associated press il segretario generale del consiglio centrale degli ebrei tedeschi, Stephan Kramer -. Sinora non ho visto San Pietro bruciare né ci sono stati scoppi di violenza contro preti cattolici. Sono senza parole. Il Vaticano sta tentando di trasformare i persecutori in vittime». Il rabbino statunitense Gary Greenebaum, responsabile delle relazioni interreligiose per l’American Jewish Committee, hainvece bollato le affermazioni di Cantalamessa come «un uso sfortunato del linguaggio. La violenza collettiva contro gli ebrei - ha detto - ha avuto come effetto la morte di sei milioni di persone, mentre la violenza collettiva di cui si parla qui non ha condotto a uccisioni o distruzioni».
LA SMENTITA DELLA SANTA SEDE - «Smentisco nel modo più assoluto che ci sia un paragone di iniziativa vaticana tra l’antisemitismo e la situazione attuale relativa alla pedofilia» ha però detto in serata il portavoce vaticano, padre Federico Lombardi. «La citazione del predicatore pontificio - ha spiegato Lombardi all'Apcom - voleva anzi essere la testimonianza dell’amicizia con cui un ebreo, ricordando la situazione di sofferenza del suo popolo, intendeva portare un messaggio di solidarietà alla Chiesa».
VIOLENZA SULLE DONNE - Cantalamessa aveva parlato anche di altre forme di violenza, sottolineando che una di quelle particolarmente «odiose», è quella contro le donne, che avviene spesso all'interno della mura domestiche, ed è innescata soprattutto dall«insicurezza» e dalla «vigliaccheria» dei maschi. Il religioso, un frate cappuccino, ha esortato gli uomini a un mea culpa collettivo. Giovanni Paolo II - ha spiegato - ha inaugurato la pratica delle richieste di massa di perdono. «Una di esse, tra le più giuste e necessarie, è il perdono che una metà dell'umanità deve chiedere all'altra metà, gli uomini alle donne». «Essa - ha proseguito il frate - non deve rimanere generica e astratta. Deve portare, specie per chi si professa cristiano, a concreti gesti di conversione, a parole di scusa e di riconciliazione all'interno delle famiglie e della società». «Cari colleghi uomini - ha detto padre Cantalamessa - creandoci maschi, Dio non ha inteso darci il diritto di arrabbiarci e pestare i pugni sul tavolo per ogni minima cosa. La parola rivolta ad Eva dopo la colpa: 'Egli (l'uomo) ti dominerà ', era un'amara previsione, non una autorizzazione».
Redazione online
02 aprile 2010
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Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa delivering the Good Friday service celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Friday.
(AP)
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Last update - 21:59 02/04/2010
Vatican preacher compares attacks on pope to anti-Semitism
By Reuters and Haaretz Service
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Attacks on Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church over a sexual abuse scandal are comparable to the most shameful anti-Semitism, the pontiff's
personal preacher told a Vatican Good Friday service.
Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a Franciscan whose title is "Preacher of the Pontifical Household," drew the parallel during a "Passion of the Lord" service in St Peter's Basilica on the day Christians commemorate Jesus' death by crucifixion.
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His comments drew sharp criticism from some Jews.
Cantalamessa, noting that this year the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter fell during the same week, said Jews throughout history had been the victims of "collective violence" and drew a comparison with attacks on the Church over the scandal.
As the pope listened, Cantalamessa read the congregation a part of a letter he received from a Jewish friend, who said he was "following with disgust the violent and concentric attacks against the Church, the pope..."
"The use of stereotypes, the shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," he quoted from the letter.
"Shame on Father Cantalamessa," said Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.
"The Vatican is entitled to defend itself but the comparison with anti-Semitic persecution is offensive and unsustainable. We are sorely disappointed," he told Reuters.
The chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Riccardo di Segni, reportedly laughed in when asked about Father Cantalamessa's remarks, The New York Times reported.
"With a minimum of irony, I will say that today is Good Friday, when they pray that the Lord illuminate our hearts so we recognize Jesus," Rabbi Di Segni told the New York Times, referring to a prayer in a traditional Catholic liturgy calling for the conversion of the Jews. "We also pray that the Lord illuminate theirs."
This week's celebrations leading up to Easter Sunday have been clouded by accusations that the Church in several countries mishandled and covered up episodes of sexual abuse of children by priests, some dating back decades.
Shaken by the crisis, the Vatican has accused the media of an "ignoble" attempt to smear the pope at all costs. Some news reports have accused him of negligence in handling sexual abuse cases in previous roles as a cardinal in his native Germany and in Rome.
As revelations of sexual abuse and alleged cover-ups have surfaced almost daily in Europe over the past few weeks, the Vatican has said the guilt of individuals who committed crimes, however heinous, cannot be shifted to the pope or the entire Church.
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'Abuse critique like anti-Semitism'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/04/2010 22:00
Pope's preacher's comment in sermon enrages Jewish groups, victims of clerical sex abuse.
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.
Reaction from Jewish groups and victims of clerical sex abuse ranged from skepticism to fury.
The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter's Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote to him to say the accusations remind him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."
The 82-year-old pontiff looked weary as he sat near the central altar during the early evening prayer service before he was scheduled to take part in a candlelit Way of the Cross procession near the Colosseum that commemorates Christ's suffering before his crucifixion.
Thousands of Holy Week pilgrims were in St. Peter's Square as the church defends itself against accusations that Benedict had a role in covering up sex abuse cases.
The "coincidence" that Passover falls in the same week as Easter celebrations prompted Cantalamessa to think about Jews, said the preacher, a Franciscan who offers reflections at Vatican Easter and Advent services.
"They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms," the preacher said.
Stephan Kramer, general-secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews, said Cantalamessa's remarks were "a so-far-unheard-of insolence."
"It is repulsive, obscene and most of all offensive toward all abuse victims as well as to all the victims of the Holocaust," Kramer said. "So far I haven't seen St. Peter burning, nor were there outbursts of violence against Catholic priests. I'm without words. The Vatican is now trying to turn the perpetrators into victims."
Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, US director of inter-religious relations for the American Jewish Committee, called the comments "an unfortunate use of language."
"The collective violence against the Jews resulted in the death of 6 million, while the collective violence spoken of here has not led to murder and destruction, but perhaps character assault," Greenebaum said.
Quoting from the letter from the Jewish friend, who wasn't identified by Cantalamessa, the preacher said that he was following "'with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful of the whole world.'"
"The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,'" Cantalamessa said his friend wrote him.
In the sermon, he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying "unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained" by the violence." But Cantalamessa said he didn't want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying "there is sufficient talk outside of here."
Peter Isely, the Milwaukee-based director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, denounced the anti-Semitism analogy as "reckless and irresponsible."
"They're sitting in the papal palace, they're experiencing a little discomfort, and they're going to compare themselves to being rounded up or lined up and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz?" he said. "You cannot be serious."
Benedict didn't speak after the homily, but, in a tired-sounding voice, chanted prayers. He leaned up to remove a red cloth covering a tall crucifix, which was passed to him by an aide. He took off his shoes, knelt and prayed before the cross.
The head of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops said earlier in an unusually forthright Good Friday statement that the church in the pope's homeland failed to help victims of clerical sex abuse because it wanted to protect its reputation.
Clerics have neglected helping abuse victims by a "wrongly intended desire to protect the church's reputation," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg said.
The news about sexual and physical abuse of children by priests and other employees leaves the church with "sadness, horror and shame," he said.
Reports of new cases have been cropping up almost daily in neighboring Austria, where the country's top Catholic, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, held a service for victims and acknowledged church guilt in the controversy this week.
Austria's Platform Of Those Affected By Church Violence — a group that includes victims, psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers — said about 150 people had called a new hot line for victims of abuse by clergy and church workers, with about a third claiming they had been sexually abused and the rest reporting physical or verbal abuse.
In 1980, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, allowed a pedophile priest to be transferred from the northwestern city of Essen to undergo therapy in Munich, where he was then archbishop.
The Munich archdiocese says Benedict wasn't involved in a lower-ranking official's later decision to allow the priest to return to pastoral work. The Rev. Peter Hullermann went on to work with youths again and was sentenced for sexual abuse in 1986.
Germany's prestigious Regensburg Domspatzen boys choir once led by the pope's brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, as well as the school that sends many students to the choir, also have faced allegations of sexual and more general physical abuse.
An Associated Press tally has documented 73 cases with allegations of sexual abuse by priests against minors over the past decade in Italy, with more than 235 victims.
Italian prosecutor Pietro Forno said that once investigations have gotten under way, church officials have never tried to interfere or hinder the probes. But he added, "In the many years that I have dealt with this, never — and I stress, never — have I received a single complaint from bishops, or priests. And that's a bit odd."
The interview with Il Giornale, a conservative national daily, was published Thursday.
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From Times Online
April 2, 2010
Attacks on Pope over child abuse scandal are ‘akin to anti-Semitism’
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Vatican officials have tried to shift the blame for the abuse scandal
Richard Owen in Rome and Roger Boyes in Berlin
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The Pope’s preacher today likened recent attacks on the pontiff over the Catholic sex abuse scandal to the “most shameful acts of anti-Semitism”.
The controversial intervention by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household, came as one Catholic leader attempted to draw a line under the affair.
In Germany Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, said that the Church had committed serious mistakes and done too little to help the victims of priestly abuse.
“The caring responsibility towards the victims was insufficient in the past because of our own disappointment at the painful failure of the perpetrators, and out of a falsely understood concern for the standing of the church," he said.
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PICTURES: Easter weekend
But in Rome, as the Pope prepares to make a major address to the world for Easter Sunday, the Vatican is fighting back.
Father Cantalamessa, noting that this year the Jewish festival of Passover and Easter fell during the same week, said that Jews throughout history had been the victims of “collective violence” and drew a comparison with current attacks on the Church over the scandal.
Speaking during a ceremony at St Peter’s Basilica commemorating Christ’s Passion, he read to the congregation, which included the Pope, part of a letter that he had received from an unidentified Jewish friend, who said that he was following “with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the Pope and all the faithful of the whole world”.
“The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,” Father Cantalamessa said his friend wrote to him.
In the sermon he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying: “Unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained by the violence.” But Father Cantalamessa said that he did not want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying: “There is sufficient talk outside of here.”
Vatican officials have also tried to shift the blame for the abuse scandal engulfing the church onto the previous Pope John Paul II and the media.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna — a staunch supporter of the pontiff and seen as a possible successor — laid the blame on John Paul II and his close advisers for failure to take action against Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, Cardinal Schönborn’s predecessor as Archbishop of Vienna and a serial child abuser.
Cardinal Schönborn told Austrian television and L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which dealt with clerical sex abuse, the Pope had pressed John Paul in vain to investigate Groer. He eventually stepped down in 1995 after being accused of sexually molesting a schoolboy.
After Cardinal Groer resigned allegations surfaced that he had also sexually abused young monks. He was never defrocked, however, and died in Germany in 2003. Cardinal Schönborn said that Vatican officials — who he did not name — had persuaded John Paul not to investigate Cardinal Groer because of the bad publicity that it would give the Church.
“I still remember very clearly the moment when Cardinal Ratzinger told me with sadness that the other side had prevailed,” Cardinal Schönborn said. He added that the Pope is not “someone who covers things up”.
“Having known the Pope for many years, I can say that is certainly not true ... I have known him for 37 years and he has always been in favour of shedding light on these cases, something that was not always to the Vatican’s liking,” he said.
As well as from discrediting the Pope’s predecessor, the Vatican has also launched a counter-attack against the media for its reporting of the sex abuse scandal.
Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice, said that the Pope was the victim of “deceitful accusations.”
Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said that the Pope was “suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar as did Jesus”.
He said: “Truth and falsehood are scandalously mingled in the New York Times reconstructions. You begin to wonder, is there an agenda of bias here?”
However, David Clohessy, head of The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said: “It is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, deceitful and unhealthy to try to shift focus away from child sex crimes and cover-ups and onto the alleged motives of journalists.” The New York Times said that none of its reports had been factually rebutted.
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«Attacchi al Papa come l'antisemitismo»
Il predicatore della Casa Pontificia: «I fratelli ebrei sanno cosa significa essere vittime di violenza collettiva»
Ma il paragone non piace ai gruppi ebraici: «Vergogna». Poi la Santa Sede smentisce
«Attacchi al Papa come l'antisemitismo»
Il predicatore della Casa Pontificia: «I fratelli ebrei sanno cosa significa essere vittime di violenza collettiva»
http://www.corriere.it/Hermes%20Foto/2010/04/02/0L09FS2P--180x140.jpg
Padre Raniero Cantalamessa, predicatore della Casa Pontificia (Ap)
CITTÀ DEL VATICANO - Padre Raniero Cantalamessa, il predicatore della Casa Pontificia, ha citato durante una cerimonia a San Pietro alla presenza di papa Ratzinger una lettera di un suo amico ebreo che esprime solidarietà al pontefice e afferma che gli attacchi collettivi alla Chiesa per gli scandali di pedofilia gli ricordano «gli aspetti più vergognosi dell'antisemitismo». «Per una rara coincidenza, quest'anno la nostra Pasqua cade nelle stessa settimana della Pasqua ebraica che ne è l'antenata e la matrice dentro cui si è formata», ha ricordato padre Cantalamessa nell'omelia durante il rito della «Passione del Signore». «Questo - ha aggiunto il frate - ci spinge a rivolgere un pensiero ai fratelli ebrei. Essi sanno per esperienza cosa significa essere vittime della violenza collettiva e anche per questo sono pronti a riconoscerne i sintomi ricorrenti».
«ATTACCO CONCENTRICO» - «Ho ricevuto in questi giorni - ha proseguito - la lettera di un amico ebreo e, con il suo permesso, ne condivido qui una parte. Dice: "Sto seguendo con disgusto l'attacco violento e concentrico contro la Chiesa, il Papa e tutti i fedeli da parte del mondo intero. L'uso dello stereotipo, il passaggio dalla responsabilità e colpa personale a quella collettiva mi ricordano gli aspetti più vergognosi dell'antisemitismo. Desidero pertanto esprimere a lei personalmente, al Papa e a tutta la Chiesa la mia solidarietà di ebreo del dialogo e di tutti coloro che nel mondo ebraico (e sono molti) condividono questi sentimenti di fratellanza"».
LE REAZIONI DEI GRUPPI EBRAICI - La citazione, che ha presto fatto il giro del mondo, non è però piaciuta a diversi gruppi ebraici che considerano inaccettabile il paragone con le vittime dell'Olocausto. «E’ ripugnante, osceno e soprattutto offensivo nei confronti di tutte le vittime degli abusi così come nei confronti di tutte le vittime del’olocausto - ha commentato con l'Associated press il segretario generale del consiglio centrale degli ebrei tedeschi, Stephan Kramer -. Sinora non ho visto San Pietro bruciare né ci sono stati scoppi di violenza contro preti cattolici. Sono senza parole. Il Vaticano sta tentando di trasformare i persecutori in vittime». Il rabbino statunitense Gary Greenebaum, responsabile delle relazioni interreligiose per l’American Jewish Committee, hainvece bollato le affermazioni di Cantalamessa come «un uso sfortunato del linguaggio. La violenza collettiva contro gli ebrei - ha detto - ha avuto come effetto la morte di sei milioni di persone, mentre la violenza collettiva di cui si parla qui non ha condotto a uccisioni o distruzioni».
LA SMENTITA DELLA SANTA SEDE - «Smentisco nel modo più assoluto che ci sia un paragone di iniziativa vaticana tra l’antisemitismo e la situazione attuale relativa alla pedofilia» ha però detto in serata il portavoce vaticano, padre Federico Lombardi. «La citazione del predicatore pontificio - ha spiegato Lombardi all'Apcom - voleva anzi essere la testimonianza dell’amicizia con cui un ebreo, ricordando la situazione di sofferenza del suo popolo, intendeva portare un messaggio di solidarietà alla Chiesa».
VIOLENZA SULLE DONNE - Cantalamessa aveva parlato anche di altre forme di violenza, sottolineando che una di quelle particolarmente «odiose», è quella contro le donne, che avviene spesso all'interno della mura domestiche, ed è innescata soprattutto dall«insicurezza» e dalla «vigliaccheria» dei maschi. Il religioso, un frate cappuccino, ha esortato gli uomini a un mea culpa collettivo. Giovanni Paolo II - ha spiegato - ha inaugurato la pratica delle richieste di massa di perdono. «Una di esse, tra le più giuste e necessarie, è il perdono che una metà dell'umanità deve chiedere all'altra metà, gli uomini alle donne». «Essa - ha proseguito il frate - non deve rimanere generica e astratta. Deve portare, specie per chi si professa cristiano, a concreti gesti di conversione, a parole di scusa e di riconciliazione all'interno delle famiglie e della società». «Cari colleghi uomini - ha detto padre Cantalamessa - creandoci maschi, Dio non ha inteso darci il diritto di arrabbiarci e pestare i pugni sul tavolo per ogni minima cosa. La parola rivolta ad Eva dopo la colpa: 'Egli (l'uomo) ti dominerà ', era un'amara previsione, non una autorizzazione».
Redazione online
02 aprile 2010
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Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa delivering the Good Friday service celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Friday.
(AP)
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Last update - 21:59 02/04/2010
Vatican preacher compares attacks on pope to anti-Semitism
By Reuters and Haaretz Service
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Attacks on Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church over a sexual abuse scandal are comparable to the most shameful anti-Semitism, the pontiff's
personal preacher told a Vatican Good Friday service.
Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a Franciscan whose title is "Preacher of the Pontifical Household," drew the parallel during a "Passion of the Lord" service in St Peter's Basilica on the day Christians commemorate Jesus' death by crucifixion.
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His comments drew sharp criticism from some Jews.
Cantalamessa, noting that this year the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter fell during the same week, said Jews throughout history had been the victims of "collective violence" and drew a comparison with attacks on the Church over the scandal.
As the pope listened, Cantalamessa read the congregation a part of a letter he received from a Jewish friend, who said he was "following with disgust the violent and concentric attacks against the Church, the pope..."
"The use of stereotypes, the shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," he quoted from the letter.
"Shame on Father Cantalamessa," said Elan Steinberg, vice-president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.
"The Vatican is entitled to defend itself but the comparison with anti-Semitic persecution is offensive and unsustainable. We are sorely disappointed," he told Reuters.
The chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Riccardo di Segni, reportedly laughed in when asked about Father Cantalamessa's remarks, The New York Times reported.
"With a minimum of irony, I will say that today is Good Friday, when they pray that the Lord illuminate our hearts so we recognize Jesus," Rabbi Di Segni told the New York Times, referring to a prayer in a traditional Catholic liturgy calling for the conversion of the Jews. "We also pray that the Lord illuminate theirs."
This week's celebrations leading up to Easter Sunday have been clouded by accusations that the Church in several countries mishandled and covered up episodes of sexual abuse of children by priests, some dating back decades.
Shaken by the crisis, the Vatican has accused the media of an "ignoble" attempt to smear the pope at all costs. Some news reports have accused him of negligence in handling sexual abuse cases in previous roles as a cardinal in his native Germany and in Rome.
As revelations of sexual abuse and alleged cover-ups have surfaced almost daily in Europe over the past few weeks, the Vatican has said the guilt of individuals who committed crimes, however heinous, cannot be shifted to the pope or the entire Church.
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'Abuse critique like anti-Semitism'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/04/2010 22:00
Pope's preacher's comment in sermon enrages Jewish groups, victims of clerical sex abuse.
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.
Reaction from Jewish groups and victims of clerical sex abuse ranged from skepticism to fury.
The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter's Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote to him to say the accusations remind him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."
The 82-year-old pontiff looked weary as he sat near the central altar during the early evening prayer service before he was scheduled to take part in a candlelit Way of the Cross procession near the Colosseum that commemorates Christ's suffering before his crucifixion.
Thousands of Holy Week pilgrims were in St. Peter's Square as the church defends itself against accusations that Benedict had a role in covering up sex abuse cases.
The "coincidence" that Passover falls in the same week as Easter celebrations prompted Cantalamessa to think about Jews, said the preacher, a Franciscan who offers reflections at Vatican Easter and Advent services.
"They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms," the preacher said.
Stephan Kramer, general-secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews, said Cantalamessa's remarks were "a so-far-unheard-of insolence."
"It is repulsive, obscene and most of all offensive toward all abuse victims as well as to all the victims of the Holocaust," Kramer said. "So far I haven't seen St. Peter burning, nor were there outbursts of violence against Catholic priests. I'm without words. The Vatican is now trying to turn the perpetrators into victims."
Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, US director of inter-religious relations for the American Jewish Committee, called the comments "an unfortunate use of language."
"The collective violence against the Jews resulted in the death of 6 million, while the collective violence spoken of here has not led to murder and destruction, but perhaps character assault," Greenebaum said.
Quoting from the letter from the Jewish friend, who wasn't identified by Cantalamessa, the preacher said that he was following "'with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful of the whole world.'"
"The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,'" Cantalamessa said his friend wrote him.
In the sermon, he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying "unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained" by the violence." But Cantalamessa said he didn't want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying "there is sufficient talk outside of here."
Peter Isely, the Milwaukee-based director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, denounced the anti-Semitism analogy as "reckless and irresponsible."
"They're sitting in the papal palace, they're experiencing a little discomfort, and they're going to compare themselves to being rounded up or lined up and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz?" he said. "You cannot be serious."
Benedict didn't speak after the homily, but, in a tired-sounding voice, chanted prayers. He leaned up to remove a red cloth covering a tall crucifix, which was passed to him by an aide. He took off his shoes, knelt and prayed before the cross.
The head of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops said earlier in an unusually forthright Good Friday statement that the church in the pope's homeland failed to help victims of clerical sex abuse because it wanted to protect its reputation.
Clerics have neglected helping abuse victims by a "wrongly intended desire to protect the church's reputation," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg said.
The news about sexual and physical abuse of children by priests and other employees leaves the church with "sadness, horror and shame," he said.
Reports of new cases have been cropping up almost daily in neighboring Austria, where the country's top Catholic, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, held a service for victims and acknowledged church guilt in the controversy this week.
Austria's Platform Of Those Affected By Church Violence — a group that includes victims, psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers — said about 150 people had called a new hot line for victims of abuse by clergy and church workers, with about a third claiming they had been sexually abused and the rest reporting physical or verbal abuse.
In 1980, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, allowed a pedophile priest to be transferred from the northwestern city of Essen to undergo therapy in Munich, where he was then archbishop.
The Munich archdiocese says Benedict wasn't involved in a lower-ranking official's later decision to allow the priest to return to pastoral work. The Rev. Peter Hullermann went on to work with youths again and was sentenced for sexual abuse in 1986.
Germany's prestigious Regensburg Domspatzen boys choir once led by the pope's brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, as well as the school that sends many students to the choir, also have faced allegations of sexual and more general physical abuse.
An Associated Press tally has documented 73 cases with allegations of sexual abuse by priests against minors over the past decade in Italy, with more than 235 victims.
Italian prosecutor Pietro Forno said that once investigations have gotten under way, church officials have never tried to interfere or hinder the probes. But he added, "In the many years that I have dealt with this, never — and I stress, never — have I received a single complaint from bishops, or priests. And that's a bit odd."
The interview with Il Giornale, a conservative national daily, was published Thursday.
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From Times Online
April 2, 2010
Attacks on Pope over child abuse scandal are ‘akin to anti-Semitism’
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Vatican officials have tried to shift the blame for the abuse scandal
Richard Owen in Rome and Roger Boyes in Berlin
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The Pope’s preacher today likened recent attacks on the pontiff over the Catholic sex abuse scandal to the “most shameful acts of anti-Semitism”.
The controversial intervention by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household, came as one Catholic leader attempted to draw a line under the affair.
In Germany Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, said that the Church had committed serious mistakes and done too little to help the victims of priestly abuse.
“The caring responsibility towards the victims was insufficient in the past because of our own disappointment at the painful failure of the perpetrators, and out of a falsely understood concern for the standing of the church," he said.
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PICTURES: Easter weekend
But in Rome, as the Pope prepares to make a major address to the world for Easter Sunday, the Vatican is fighting back.
Father Cantalamessa, noting that this year the Jewish festival of Passover and Easter fell during the same week, said that Jews throughout history had been the victims of “collective violence” and drew a comparison with current attacks on the Church over the scandal.
Speaking during a ceremony at St Peter’s Basilica commemorating Christ’s Passion, he read to the congregation, which included the Pope, part of a letter that he had received from an unidentified Jewish friend, who said that he was following “with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the Pope and all the faithful of the whole world”.
“The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,” Father Cantalamessa said his friend wrote to him.
In the sermon he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying: “Unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained by the violence.” But Father Cantalamessa said that he did not want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying: “There is sufficient talk outside of here.”
Vatican officials have also tried to shift the blame for the abuse scandal engulfing the church onto the previous Pope John Paul II and the media.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna — a staunch supporter of the pontiff and seen as a possible successor — laid the blame on John Paul II and his close advisers for failure to take action against Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, Cardinal Schönborn’s predecessor as Archbishop of Vienna and a serial child abuser.
Cardinal Schönborn told Austrian television and L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which dealt with clerical sex abuse, the Pope had pressed John Paul in vain to investigate Groer. He eventually stepped down in 1995 after being accused of sexually molesting a schoolboy.
After Cardinal Groer resigned allegations surfaced that he had also sexually abused young monks. He was never defrocked, however, and died in Germany in 2003. Cardinal Schönborn said that Vatican officials — who he did not name — had persuaded John Paul not to investigate Cardinal Groer because of the bad publicity that it would give the Church.
“I still remember very clearly the moment when Cardinal Ratzinger told me with sadness that the other side had prevailed,” Cardinal Schönborn said. He added that the Pope is not “someone who covers things up”.
“Having known the Pope for many years, I can say that is certainly not true ... I have known him for 37 years and he has always been in favour of shedding light on these cases, something that was not always to the Vatican’s liking,” he said.
As well as from discrediting the Pope’s predecessor, the Vatican has also launched a counter-attack against the media for its reporting of the sex abuse scandal.
Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice, said that the Pope was the victim of “deceitful accusations.”
Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said that the Pope was “suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar as did Jesus”.
He said: “Truth and falsehood are scandalously mingled in the New York Times reconstructions. You begin to wonder, is there an agenda of bias here?”
However, David Clohessy, head of The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said: “It is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, deceitful and unhealthy to try to shift focus away from child sex crimes and cover-ups and onto the alleged motives of journalists.” The New York Times said that none of its reports had been factually rebutted.
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