Special Delivery from the Pope

By Richard Lacayo.

Dismay and anger were the reactions of American Jews last June when Pope John Paul II welcomed Kurt Waldheim at the Vatican, despite accusations that the Austrian President had been involved in Nazi war crimes. The resulting controversy threatened to sour John Paul's nine-city trip to the U.S., which begins on Sept. 10. Jewish leaders in Los Angeles announced that they might boycott the Pope's scheduled interfaith celebrations. A more important Miami meeting between John Paul and American-Jewish leaders, intended to enhance relations, seemed doomed.

But the tension level dropped considerably last week following publication of a remarkable papal letter that was as affectingly written as it was astutely timed. The subject: the "terrible experience" of the Holocaust and its lessons for Christians. The three-page missive was addressed to Archbishop John L. May of St. Louis, president of the U.S. conference of Roman Catholic bishops, thanking May for sending him a newly published collection of the Pontiff's statements on Jews and Judaism. While the letter was ostensibly routine, its language was heartfelt. "Christians approach with fearsome respect the terrifying experience of the extermination, the Shoah, suffered by the Jews during the Second World War," wrote the Pope, "and we seek to grasp its most authentic . . . meaning." He went on, "Before the vivid memory of the extermination . . . it is not permissible for anyone to pass by with indifference."

John Paul's statement, which makes no reference to the Waldheim audience, was a long-contemplated synthesis of his views on the Holocaust, said a Vatican official, "not a consequence of the Waldheim meeting." But it followed a July session in New York City between Vatican Secretary of State Agostino Cardinal Casaroli and representatives of American-Jewish organizations; they pressed for a statement as well as a meeting with John Paul before his visit to the U.S. That meeting is now set for next Tuesday with five or six Jewish leaders at the papal summer residence.

The Pope's gesture seems to have cleared up concern about the atmosphere that would prevail there. "It was a thoughtful letter, one charged with emotion," said Theodore Ellenoff, president of the American Jewish Committee. Participants in next week's papal exchanges were also pleased. The Pontiff has asked for 90 minutes of open, frank dialogue on Catholic-Jewish relations, without set speeches. "We were told the Pope wanted a man-to-man, heart-to- heart discussion," said Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum of the American Jewish Committee. "We took it as a sign of good faith."

"It is a good beginning," said Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, retaining some reservations. "Up to now, perhaps, Jews did not play an important role in the Pope's vision of the world." In fact, John Paul has made a number of significant overtures to Jews. His 1979 journey to Auschwitz was the first by a Pontiff to a concentration camp. His visit last year to a Rome synagogue made him the first known Pope to enter a Jewish house of worship since St. Peter. But last May he beatified a nun, Edith Stein, a convert from Judaism, as a heroic Christian martyr. Jews had protested that Stein was gassed at Auschwitz not for her faith but for her ancestry. John Paul has also defended the actions of the German bishops under the Nazis, despite accusations that some were less than aggressive in their opposition to Hitler.

Some Jewish leaders would like the Pope to declare more explicitly that he understands why Jews were offended by his meeting with Waldheim. Nonetheless, few doubted that relations between the Vatican and Judaism were getting back on the right track. "Skeptics abound on both sides," says Rabbi Alan Mittleman, who recently published a study of John Paul's attitudes toward Jews. "But realists know that there is genuine improvement under way."

With reporting by Cathy Booth/Rome and Wayne Svoboda/New York