Spring
Books Book
takes on papal anti-Semitism
THE POPES AGAINST THE
JEWS: THE VATICANS ROLE IN THE RISE OF MODERN ANTI-SEMITISM By
David I. Kertzer Alfred A. Knopf, 345 pages, $27.95
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REVIEWED By JOHN T.
PAWLIKOWSKI
David Kertzer adds yet another selection to what is becoming a
virtual book of the month club on institutional Catholicism, anti-Semitism and
the Holocaust. A professor at Brown University and author of the much-discussed
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, the account of a baptized Jewish boy
forcibly taken from his parents by church officials, Kertzer presents a
detailed account of the significant role of the popes and other senior church
leaders in fomenting societal anti-Semitism in the two centuries preceding the
Second Vatican Council and its historic Declaration on the Relation of
the Church to Non-Christian Religions.
Some of the information in the volume has been exposed by other
authors such as Ronald Modras. But Kertzer has probed newly available archival
material from Vatican sources more thoroughly than any previous author on the
subject. He does himself a disservice in this regard by having his volume
associated with John Cornwells Hitlers Pope through an
endorsement by Cornwell on the books dust cover.
Unlike Cornwells superficial volume whose notoriety has been
based largely on misleading publishers hype, Kertzer has presented us
with a substantive volume generally based on sound scholarship even if one
takes issue with some of his arguments, especially toward the end of the book.
This is a serious work that deserves significant attention by Catholics as part
of the honest self-assessment of the church that Pope John Paul II made a core
component of the recent Jubilee celebration.
Kertzer begins his narrative with a discussion of the 1998 Vatican
document on the Holocaust, We Remember. This document, while well
intentioned, illustrates the problem with the way Catholic leaders have
traditionally handled the issue of Catholic anti-Semitism. While We
Remember does acknowledge, according to Kertzer, some personal complicity
in the spread of anti-Semitism by members of the Catholic church, it argues
that the anti-Semitism of the 19th and 20th centuries was essentially a secular
(even anti-Catholic) phenomenon and implies that the church in fact opposed
such anti-Semitism.
I share some of Kertzers criticism of We
Remember on this score. It did fail to highlight that popular preaching,
catechesis as well as church art had a decisive hand in aiding the growth of
modern anti-Semitism, which We Remember is correct in attributing
primarily to non-religious factors such as the new genetics and its biological
racism. But Kertzer has failed to note the expanded interpretation of We
Remember offered by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the documents
principal author. Nor does he fully understand the theology of the church that
is present within the document. While Cassidys interpretation of We
Remember does not fully answer Kertzers or my criticisms, it
certainly does move us in the direction of a closer connection between
traditional Catholic and modern forms of anti-Semitism. Kertzer is either
unaware of Cassidys writings as well as other commentaries on We
Remember or simply chooses to ignore them. Neither represents sound
scholarship on his part.
The main thrust of The Popes Against the Jews is the
argument that the profound inability of the popes and other Vatican leaders to
deal with the challenge of political and cultural modernity in Europe led to an
active campaign, often employing classic Christian anti-Semitic themes and
activities, against the Jews who were seen as significant proponents of
modernism and liberalism, often referred to as Freemasonry. Here Kertzer is on
solid ground in my judgment, even if one might disagree with this or that
particular point. I have argued this thesis in some of my own writings. But
Kertzers work on the newly available Vatican archival documents
solidifies this contention beyond question.
Catholicisms 100 years war with modernity, led by the popes
whose administrations Kertzer examines in this volume, came to an end only at
the Second Vatican Council. In light of the papal activities cited by Kertzer
such as a resurgence of the ritual murder charge, of the dogged anti-Judaism
campaign by the semi-official Vatican newspaper Civilta Cattolica and of
the active encouragement of anti-Semitic political parties in Austria in
particular, the approval of Nostra Aetate at Vatican II appears as even
a greater about-face than we previously imagined.
The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin called for total honesty in
dealing with church history in such matters. Kertzers volume should help
the church confront its shadow side more profoundly than it has. Only in this
way can it retain moral integrity today.
While I believe the central thesis advanced in The Popes
Against the Jews is on target, the latter part of the book has definite
flaws. I found the chapter on race overly simplistic as Kertzer
strains to make a direct connection between Catholic anti-Semitism and
biological racism. Kertzer is generally to be critiqued for failing to address
the continuity-discontinuity issue in terms of Christian anti-Semitism and
racial anti-Semitism far more thoroughly. He gives some indication throughout
the book that he does not see a simple straight line connecting the two. But
the question needs a far more direct airing than he provides.
Part Three with its chapters on A Future Pope in
Poland and Antechamber to the Holocaust is poorly done. He
skims through the papacy of Pius XII in a few pages while offering a clear
indictment. Either he should have stopped his narrative with the papacy of Pius
XI or done a far more extensive analysis of Pius XII. Obviously he did not have
the kind of archival material available to him for this period that he did for
the earlier papacies. This part of the book does not reflect sound
scholarship.
In sum, this book is a challenging volume. While significantly
flawed at the end, it presents us with a basically accurate picture of direct,
active involvement of the papacy in the spread of anti-Semitism in the modern
world. It is a history that Catholics today need to integrate into their faith
perspective rather than bury in a cave.
Servite Fr. John T. Pawlikowski is professor of social ethics
and director of Catholic-Jewish Studies at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.
He is also a member of the Bishops Advisory Committee on Catholic-Jewish
Relations and since 1980 a member by presidential appointment of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Council.
National Catholic Reporter, February 1,
2002
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