An Israeli rabbi, who made an unprecedented address to Catholic bishops, added his voice to those opposing the beatification of World War II-era Pope Pius XII. "We oppose the beatification of Pius XII. We cannot forget his silence on the Holocaust," Shear-Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Haifa, said. "He should not be seen as a model and he should not be beatified because he did not raise his voice against the Holocaust. He did not speak because he was afraid or for other personal reasons," Cohen said.
"He may have helped in secrecy many of the victims and many of the refugees but the question is could he have raised his voice and would it have helped or not? We, as the victims, feel the answer is yes, and I am not empowered by the families of the millions of deceased to say we forget, we forgive," Cohen, who is a member of Israel's Chief Rabbinate's commission for relations with the Vatican, added.
Cohen on Monday became the first Jew to address a synod of Catholic bishops, the supreme representative body of the Catholic Church, in Rome. His presence sent a "signal of hope" after a history of "blood and tears" between Christians and Jews. He was invited to speak about the significance of the Torah for the Jewish people.
The bishops stressed the importance of dialogue with Jews and Muslims. "Today, bearing in mind the tragic history of the relations between Israel and the Church, we are invited ... to repair any injustice committed against the Jews," the archbishop of Quebec, Marc Ouellet, told the synod.
