There are a couple of posts at America magazine's blog about the pope repudiating the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Jesus’ death in the second volume of his Jesus of Nazareth books - Why Are the Pope's Words on the Jews Important? by Fr. James Martin SJ, and Pope book on Jews: how original is its insight? by Austen Ivereigh. There's a post on this at Reuters FaithWorld blog too.
To me, the attention this is getting seems weird for two reasons. First reason: the idea that the Catholic Church has decided not to hold all Jewish people responsible for Jesus' death was previously stated in the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate (see my post The Mid-East Synod, Maximos IV, and Nostra Aetate ). The second reason is this: the pope has actually been the architect of a deteriorating relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people .... here's a bit from another post at Reuters FaithWorld blog, Timeline – Ups and downs in recent Catholic-Jewish relations ....
2005 – Pope Benedict, who was enrolled by force into the Hitler Youth as a boy, visits a Cologne synagogue. Jewish leaders urge the Vatican to open all its wartime archives [which it still has not done].
2008 – Pope Benedict approves a prayer for traditionalist Good Friday services that Jews say calls for their conversion.
2009 – Benedict lifts the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops [SSPX], one of whom denies the Holocaust. This leads to an outcry and deep rift with Jews, with whom Benedict expresses his “full and unquestionable solidarity.”
...
2010 – Benedict visits the Rome Synagogue in January and hears renewed criticism of Pius XII. In November, Jewish leaders react negatively to comments in the pontiff’s new book that his wartime predecessor Pius was a “great, righteous”man who “saved more Jews than anyone else”.
Don't get me wrong - I am glad the pope is using his book to mention the obvious truth that the Jewish people are not responsible for Jesus' death, but to hail this as some great ecumenical feat seems like a PR ploy, given how negatively the pope is actually treating the Jewish people. I'll wait to give the pope credit until he removes Pius XII from the sainthood fast-track and opens up the Vatican's secret archives for the years when Pius XII was pope.
