This Week

erg$4-

TA -- Following are

-- -sortie of the high and low
points of Vatican-Jewish rela-
tions during the past century:

Pope. Pius X. rejects 'Theodor
Herzl's request that he support the
Zionist movement.

The Vatican warns of the danger of
a Jewish state, just two years after
the Balfour Declaration is issued by
Britain in support of the Jews'
right to a homeland in Palestine.

Pope Pius XII is aware of the
Holocaust, but fails to speak
out against it.

,

•

•

Pope Pius XII urges that Jerusalem
be iriternationalized.

Pope Paul VI visits Israel for
one day during the first papal
pilgrimage to the Holy Land,

Second Vatican Council issues the
repucli-
at Jews

Jewish suspicion of papal apology
leaves Catholics hurt and angry.

J.J. GOLDBERG
Special to the Jewish News

New York

.IN

3/17
2000

12

Above: The popemobile is driven
past rows of empty chairs as it
makes its way along Pope John
Paul Its route during a practice
run in advance of his five-day
visit next week.

day after Pope John Paul II
offered his unprecedented
apology for historic Catholic
sins, Father Dennis
Mikulanis was sitting in his parish rectory in San
Diego, feeling just a bit miffed.
For Father Mikulanis, the pope's March 12 con-
fession was a personal milestone. As ecumenical
affairs director of the Catholic diocese of San Diego
for the last 1 years, he's played a vital role in fos-
tering religious understanding in America's sixth-
largest city. Putting old suspicions to rest is a life-
long mission. "He even has a mezuza on his door,"
says Rabbi Aaron Gold, a longtime friend.
Last week, though, after hearing the largely negative
Jewish responses to the pope's message, Father Mikulanis
himself was feeling somewhat -- well, misunderstood.
"I'll be very honest with you — I'm disappointed in
the Jewish reaction," he said. "Here's the Catholic
church, bending over backward to say mistakes were
made, we were wrong. But nothing is ever enough.
Can't we ever hear a simple `Thank you'?"
The pope had captured the world's imagination with
J. J. Goldberg is a national Jewish columnist and
author of "Jewish Power." He can be reached via e-mail
at jjg@compuserve. corn

Related story: page 30
Related editorial: page 37
Related commentary: page 38

his dramatic confession of Catholic
wrongdoing through the centuries.
The ritualized atonement was part
of the first Sunday Mass of Lent, the first of
Christianity's third millennium.
The church, the pope intoned, "kneels before God
and begs for forgiveness for past and present sins of
her sons." Then seven cardinals rose and confessed
seventypes of Catholic sins: against Jews, women and
minorities, heretics, native peoples, the poor, the
unborn and "general sins." The pope answered each
with a prayer for forgiveness.
In a 21-year papacy filled with drama and innova-
tion, this confession was seen worldwide as apeak
moment. The Associated Press called it "an unprece-
dented moment in the history of the church." Reuters
said it was "the first time in the history of the Catholic
Church that one of its leaders has sought such a
sweeping pardon." The impact was magnified by the
timing, a week before the pope's historic visit to Israel.
Almost as stunning was the gesture's speedy dismissal
by Jewish spokesmen. Israel's Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi
Israel Meir Lau, Yad Vashem director Avner Shalev,
Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman

—

BRUISED FEELINGS

on page 14

