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The Religion Business
"Mistakes Were Made"
Pope to apologize for the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc.
THE Vatican yesterday paved the way for the Pope's long-awaited mea culpa
with the release of a document drawn up to explain the Church's increasingly
controversial decision to apologise for past wrongs.
Asking for forgiveness has been a leitmotif of John Paul II's papacy, and the
mea culpa will be pronounced by him in a solemn ceremony this Sunday. No one
knows exactly what he will say, although there has been speculation that he
may mention anti-Semitism, the failure of Christians to rush to the aid of
the Jews in the Second World War and the wrongs committed during the Crusades
and the Inquisition.
No pope has gone to such lengths to seek forgiveness for past sins, said
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican spokesman. By "repenting for the errors of
the past, and instances of infidelity, inconsistency and slowness to act",
the Vatican said it was seeking a "recognition of the truth". Through this it
aimed to achieve reconciliation and peace with other cultures and religions.
"Because of her responsibility to truth," the document says, "the Church
cannot cross the threshold of the new Millennium without encouraging her
children to purify themselves." However, the document released yesterday
avoids listing specific wrongs. The Pope's homily is apparently still being
written and Vatican officials yesterday appeared to be setting limits on how
the apology should be viewed.
"It cannot assume the aspect of a spectacular self-flagellation," said
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican's 2000 Jubilee Committee.
The document, Memory and Reconciliation: the Church and the Faults of the
Past, was written by an international commission of theologians.
Rather than listing specific wrongs, it examines the theological reasons for
its move, calling it an "act of courage and humility". The document touches
on some historical cases which it says are worthy of an "examination of
conscience" by individual believers.
These include the relationship of Christians and Jews, the "use of force in
the Service of Truth" - although the word Inquisition is omitted - the
division of Christians and the Church's share of responsibility for the
"evils of today". The document admits that "the hostility or diffidence of
numerous Christians towards Jews in the course of time" was "a sad historical
fact".
While the Holocaust was "certainly the result of the pagan ideology that was
Nazism", the "spiritual resistance and concrete action" against it of some
Christians was "not that which might have been expected from Christ's
followers".
The document said that believers shared "some responsibility" for some of the
"evils of today", including a climate of secularism and ethical relativism,
religious indifference, the denial of the right to life of the unborn child
sanctioned in pro-abortion legislation and a "great indifference to the cry
of the poor in entire sectors of the human family".
"We have mentioned a few errors, but we could have had a very long list . . .
I fear the list will never be finished," said Fr Jean-Louis Bruges, one of
the theologians who drew up the document.
The Roman Catholic Church has been divided over whether it should
acknowledge, as the Pope has desired, its past wrongs. Some on the
theological commission are said to have argued that by so doing the Church
ran the risk of discrediting its own doctrine and helping to "confirm
prejudices" against it.
The document calls for reciprocation of the mea culpa by other churches. The
history of various religions, it states, is marked by "intolerance,
superstition, complicity with unjust powers and the denial of the dignity and
freedom of conscience", adding: "Christians have been no exception, and they
are aware that all are sinners before God."
The London Telegraph, March 8, 2000
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Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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