Jean-Paul II et la question de la Shoah, à temps et contretemps

From 1978 until 2005, Pope John Paul II consecrated a special importance to changing the attitude of the Catholic Church towards Jews. His openness to tolerance and his friendship with families of the Jewish community while he was still a young man in Poland only partly explain the original intention which was evidently the gradual recognition of otherness between Christians and Jews. Sensitized by the persecution of Jews, especially during the Second World War, John Paul II developed a dense teaching dogma which encouraged Christians to open their spirit to Judaism. This was accompanied by an unprecedented symbolic gesture to seal the reconciliation between brethren who were separated for much too long. If one chooses to preserve the positive achievements of the Judeo-Christian dialogue in which the Supreme Pontiff was the officer, his golden legend need not be tarnished by either the ambiguous or fierce opposition it has provoked within both the Christian and Jewish communities.The modest gains of dialogue are in fact regularly punctuated by fierce debates and even controversies and misunderstandings relating both to inherently religious differences and political interests. There were many areas of contention, such as minimizing the responsibility of the Church in European anti-Semitism and denying the existence of the State of Israel for 45 years, before the formal request for forgiveness, which in itself is part of a wider and general process of repentance within the Catholic Church, was presented to the “Jewish People” in 2000

Art history · Forgiveness · Israelites · Judaism · Legend · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The Holocaust · Theology · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity · Religious studies

• Jean-Paul II et les Juifs

  Open Access•P Portier•Socio•2023

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