German Jewish leader criticizes Pope over comparison of Shoah and abortion

Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has criticized Pope John Paul II. for comparing abortion to the Nazi Holocaust. The Pope had said in a book entitled "Memory and Identity" that both derived from governments in conflict with God's laws. The book is based on the Pope's conversations in 1993 with two close friends from native Poland. After noting that a legally elected parliament allowed Hitler's rise to power in Germany, which led to the Holocaust, the Pope says: "We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present-day democracies. The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws ... ." Spiegel called the statement "unacceptable" and pointed out that "such statements show that the Roman Catholic Church has not understood or does not want to understand that there is a tremendous difference between factory-like genocide and what women do to their bodies."