Oct 8…
Vatican Council II under Pope Paul VI
“The Catholic Church decries hatred, persecutions, and displays of anti–Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone…”
The fatal flaw – and problem, however, is that all of the above – hatred, persecutions, displays of anti–Semitism, aside from incitement to persecutions, demonizations—REMAIN fully incubated in—and disseminated through—the most sacred documents of Christendom… and the central saga of Christendom—the Passion of the Christ Saga—most often selectively assembled from the most inflammatory vignettes of the four Canon Gospels.
To my knowledge, there was no cosmic moral exemption given to religion–sponsored programs, allowing them hate–mongering and demonization privileges.
Note, as well, that there are front–and–center components in Nostre Aetate itself essentially reiterating the tenuous construct that the “Jewish leadership” pressed for the death of Jesus. Thus, while the left hand of Nostre Aetate decries hatred and bigotry, the right hand incubates the same. All in the very same late–20th century document.
To wit, leading–off the paragraph preceding the ecumenical statement above…
“True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead, pressed for the death of Christ…”
This is factually unsubstantiated, and most probably wildly exaggerated, and is indeed, the central incendiary charge employed against the Jews for almost two millennia, which ultimately doomed millions (of real, actual human beings).
Thus, the same 19 centuries–old inciting to riot polemic is reaffirmed, yet once again, post–Holocaust, in a document heralded as an ecumenical breakthrough.
The alleged Nostre Aetate “breakthrough” of course, is that my daughter, a Jewish–American college student in the 21st century, is not, according to the Vatican’s Nostre Aetate, to be held personally responsible for the execution of Jesus of Nazareth by Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate in the first century. Thus, after 17–20 centuries of fabricating the allegation that there even ever was a Sanhedrin Trial, the Catholic Church in 1965 via Nostre Aetate now “exculpates” my daughter from personal responsibility 20 centuries later for an action the Jews were not culpable of to begin with. That is the crux of the nefarious and convoluted Catholic Church spin–gambit here.
“Any alleged capital trial by the Sanhedrin of Jesus is thus a convenient historical fabrication.”
– Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Jewish History, NYU, “Double Injustice,” (Journal of) Reform Judaism, April 2004
http://lawrenceschiffman.com/?page_id=141 (accessed September 2, 2009)
Nostre Aetate
For full text:
See paragraphs 12 – 15 (in Nostre Aetate) in particular.
(See above First Century in this TimeLine)
Respectfully, Nostre Aetate’s renouncing of anti–Semitism, while simultaneously reiterating the core incendiary libel, is a “mixed–bag,” at best. The core problem is not lanced. The normative Passion saga—selectively constructed from incendiary vignettes found in sundry Gospels, themselves constructs of dubious historicity, and defames the Jews.
This is the destructive diabolical gambit, ongoing for centuries. The Canon Gospels are laced with defamations of the Jews; then, the Passion Sagas cherry–pick the Canon Gospels for the most incendiary material to charge–up the crowd.
The American Jewish power elite are reading the finer print in the NY Times. But, across the land–mass of Europe and the steppes of the Soviet Union, they are not necessarily reading the finer print in the NY Times page 14; they are, however, still absorbing the demonization vignettes in Catholic Church every Sunday morning from the local re–telling and re–spinning of the Passion saga. And it is these demonization vignettes which set–the–stage for bigotry, persecution and murder.
The blue–chip (and valiant and tenacious) American Jewish Committee may have been somewhat deflected, but the veteran players of the College of Cardinals certainly were not. The Passion Sagas will be protected. Hatred sells.
Schematically–
(Over the centuries, primarily in Europe)
“Demonize; then Posture”
(i.e. Demonize the Jews in the virulent European Passion Sagas… and then Posture, case–by–case, “depending on how the wind is blowing,” as anti–Semitic abominations unfold over the centuries) has been replaced by–
“Demonize; then Decry”
(i.e. Demonize the Jews in the Passion sagas, but Decry the Holocaust)
or, in a variant
“Demonize; then Decry & Dialogue”
Spin at its very best.
–while many millions (of Jews) are brutalized…