Author: Richard N. Ostling, AP
Religion Writer
Publication: InfoBeat
Date: May 12, 2001
Deep into his reign, Pope John Paul
II keeps pursuing a long-held vision of bringing his church closer to other
faiths by confessing Roman Catholics' past sins, a rare gesture for a pope.
John Paul, undeterred by illness and infirmity, reached out to Eastern
Orthodox Christians and Muslims on his trip that concluded Wednesday, just
as he had previously expressed contrition to Jews.
``For all the times that Muslims
and Christians have offended one another, we need to seek forgiveness from
the Almighty and to offer each other forgiveness,'' the pope said in Syria
during the first papal visit to a mosque.
In Greece, two days before, he said
the pillaging of Orthodox Constantinople by medieval Crusaders ``fills
Catholics with deep regret.'' John Paul implored God ``to heal the wounds
which still cause suffering to the spirit of the Greek people.''
In all, the pope spent six days
retracing the steps of the Apostle Paul, with much time devoted to reconciliation,
a theme of John Paul's papacy since it began.
His first encyclical of 1979, issued
only months after he ascended the throne of Peter, said the church needed
discussions with ``all people of good will'' to block technological and
moral threats to human dignity.
In promoting that cause, the pope
has stressed the special kinship among Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor
of First Things magazine, said ties with Judaism are very close, but it's
hard to imagine ``a theologically informed, spiritually secure dialogue
with Islam.'' Still, the pope keeps trying, he said.
In 1995, against open opposition
from some cardinals, the pope called on his faithful to ``make an act of
courage and humility,'' and recognize the wrongs done by Christians. He
preached against using violence to impose religious truth last year. The
pope's latest statements, in Greece and Syria, came at tense moments.
``For many Orthodox Christians the
sack of Constantinople in 1204 and the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 are
all of a piece: They are simply concrete expression of the true western
attitudes toward the Orthodox nations,'' said the Rev. Ronald Roberson,
the U.S. bishops' staff expert on Orthodoxy.
The Orthodox have treated the existence
of Catholic churches in their traditional lands as a similar affront, and
Orthodox-Catholic unity talks have reached an ``impasse,'' Robertson said.
The Greeks have taken a particularly hard line, with some protesting the
pope's visit.
Yet the Athens interchange was ``a
major step forward,'' said papal biographer and confidant George Weigel.
John Paul ``refuses to take no for an answer.''
The pope's statements in Syria were
complicated when Syrian President Bashar Assad said in John Paul's presence
that the Jews have ``tried to kill the principles of all religions with
the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ.''
Although the church specifically
denounces anti-Semitism, the pope did not directly condemn Assad's remarks,
instead calling for peace and religious harmony.
Some Jews say that could unravel
the warming relations with Catholicism.
Bat Sheva Albert, an expert on Catholic
history at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, said many Jews feel the pope ``should
have reacted to the extreme views expressed by President Assad.'' She hopes
for a later clarification from the Vatican.
The Rev. Thomas Reese of America
magazine, however, thinks the pope's behavior was correct. ``When you're
thrown a curve ball by a politician, often it's better to stay focused,''
he said.
Whenever the pope makes confessions,
they do have limits. He never strays from the Catholic teaching that faith
in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. A Vatican decree last year
emphasized that belief.
John Paul also asks forgiveness
for the sins of individual Christians rather than the church itself, which
Catholic theology treats as a divine and sinless entity.
That point caused disappointment
among many Jews when the pope issued a major document in his repentance
campaign, a 1998 decree on the Holocaust. There was added distress over
a detailed footnote defending Pope Pius XII over what Jews - and some Catholics
- consider an unconscionable failure to effectively denounce Nazi genocide.
Still, Jewish experts think relations
with John Paul's church have never been better, a view enhanced by Vatican
diplomatic ties to Israel and the pope's pilgrimage to Israel last year.
