Easter flare-up over priest’s comments

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NAOMI LEVIN

JEWISH-Catholic relations in Australia will not be damaged by offensive comments made by a high-ranking Catholic priest during Easter, according to interfaith relations expert Josie Lacey.

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, who it has been reported is the only person allowed to preach to Pope Benedict XVI, quoted a letter from a “Jewish friend” at an Easter service.

In a speech that was reproduced in the official Vatican newspaper, the priest said the attacks against the Church over allegations it had covered up child abuse were just like the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism”.

He soon issued an apology, asking for forgiveness and distancing the Pope from the address, saying the Pontiff had not been informed of it before the service.

Sydney-based Lacey called on Father Cantalamessa to reveal his anonymous friend. “If you don’t have a name, it is an allegation, it is nothing,” she said of his statement.

The chair of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies interfaith committee said relations between the Catholic Church and Jewish community in Australia are strong, despite some concerns about this papal regime. “I think people have to realise, even the hierarchy in the Catholic Church have their own opinions, there are not universal, blanket opinions about anything.”

She agreed that every Easter, matters of contention between the two faith communities seem to arise, and it was something that a Jewish delegation to World Youth Day had sought to rectify.

These sorts of offensive flare-ups are not expected to stop until the whole Catholic world accepts the ruling from Vatican II in 1965 that Jews were not responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and calling for an end to anti-Semitism, Lacey said.

“Although the enlightened Catholics understand Vatican II, there are all these people who have never heard of it from Third World
countries, and I think it is still in their folklore.