Fr. Cantalamessa’s Grenade
Here’s the full story from Foxnews;
This is much like the way that Pope Benedict’s remarks at Regensburg were misconstrued by Muslims, causing a violent backlash. In this case the backlash from Jewish groups is rhetorical. However, in either case the problem is the same. In this case they engaged their reflexes before engaging their minds and actually listening to what the papal preacher was saying in the words of his Jewish friend.
“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,” he said, quoting from the letter.
This is what is happening right now. The actions of a few, and numerically and proportionally speaking the number of child-abusing priests has been few in comparison to the percentages in other organizations like the public schools; and the actions or inaction of their immediate superiors who were responsible for them; has been turned into a concerted and wide-spread attack on the Church as a whole, everyday Catholics (as I have experienced personally), the doctrines of the Church, the practices of the Church, the disciplines of the Church (clerical celibacy, etc.) and most of all, the Pope himself. They really wish to tar him with this if they can, so they are flinging tar about at a furious pace, hoping some will stick.
This is the demonization that can and often does lead to cover for the haters to take governmental action, first in confiscation of property (Nazi Germany) and from there it can and sometimes does escalate into violence against people of that identifiable group, first and most often by individuals but occasionally, as in the case of Nazi Germany, by governments in a very systematic way. We have seen this not only in the case of the National Socialists but also by the Communists in many countries around the world, in and out of the Soviet Union.
Father Cantalamessa’s Jewish friend is exactly right. It always begins with the demonization.
However, all things considered, this was too hot a potato to handle right now, so the Vatican spokesman distanced the comments of Fr. Cantalamessa from the official Vatican position.
“The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, later contacted The Associated Press and said Cantalamessa wasn’t speaking as a Vatican official when he compared “attacks’” on the pope to “collective” violence against Jews.” - Foxnews
Too bad. The statement makes or confirms the same error as the one made by those who have reacted so indignantly from the Jewish community. The writer was not saying that the current attacks against Pope Benedict are the same as violence against Jews. Rather, they are the precursor, the societal demonization, the momentum of hate, that can be employed later to justify violence. He is speaking of a pattern well known to the Jewish people over the centuries. And those in the Jewish Community who have condemned Fr. Cantalamessa and by extension his Jewish friend, ought to give the actual comments further reflection, because they should be in agreement.