The Preacher of the Papal Household explains why, in a Good Friday homily at St Peter’s, he thought it an appropriate analogy to compare recent criticism of the Pope and the hierarchy over the handling of the sex-abuse crisis to anti-Semitism Good Friday homily furore. 14 | THE TABLET | 15 May 2010

My sermon, when correctly understood, does not constitute a step backward in the Jewish-Christian dialogue, but rather a step forward Now that the initial uproar has passed, I would like to clarify what my intentions were in the sentences that caused offence during my Good Friday homily in St Peter’s Basilica in the presence of the Pope. My main goal in doing so is to ensure that the dialogue between Jews and Christians is not harmed but rather encouraged. It is also to indicate that the reactions from the Jewish world were not always the same.

The Jewish Passover this year occurred during the same week as the Christian Passover, Easter, and I decided to take advantage of that to offer a greeting to the Jews on behalf of Christians, precisely in the context of Good Friday which has always been an occasion of understandable suffering for them. I wanted to do that even more so because the central theme of my sermon was against violence, something that the Jewish people have experienced so much through the centuries. In 1998, when there was a similar timing between the Jewish Passover and the Christian Passover, I dedicated my entire sermon on that particular Good Friday to highlighting the roots of Christian anti-Semitism, including a request for forgiveness, which was extended to the Jewish world by Pope John Paul II at that time.[more...]

We are bad listeners

By ALON GOSHEN-GOTTSTEIN “The Jerusalem Post”, 11/04/ 2010


There was so much more to the papal preacher's homily than comparing the treatment the Church has been receiving over pedophilia scandals with anti-Semitism.

Last week has provided us with some important lessons on Jewish-Christian relations, and in particular on how storms on the horizons of these relations come and go. Just a week ago, in his Good Friday sermon, the Papal household preacher, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, compared the treatment the Church is currently receiving in conjunction with the international pedophilia scandals with anti-Semitism.

The statement was clearly outrageous and drew immediate, and well-justified condemnation from Jewish spokespersons. Fr. Cantalamessa issued an apology to whomever he may have unwittingly hurt. For all intents and purposes the storm was over. [more...]


FATHER CANTALAMESSA : “MY INTENTIONS WERE FRIENDLY; I DID NOT WISH TO HURT ANYONE.”

From Vatican City:

Father, what would you say to Jews who are offended and have called the comparison between anti-Semitism and attacks on the church concerning pedophilia “inappropriate” and even “repugnant and obscene”?

“If, contrary to all my intentions, I have offended any Jewish people or victims of pedophilia, I deeply regret it and I apologize. In so doing, I want to reaffirm my solidarity with both groups,” he said. The next day Father Raniero Cantalamessa was outside Rome. On the phone his voice was calm as always, but he was still affected by all that had happened in the last few hours. This Capuchin Franciscan became the Preacher to the Papal Household thirty years ago after having studied theology in Freiburg and classics at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. A man of faith and culture, he is an expert on the origins of Christianity and of its 2000-year-old problematic relationship with the Jewish world. “I believe that what Macbeth asked himself after murdering his king should be asked about the Shoah (Holocaust): ‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?’” [more...]

Comment: Daniel Schorr’s remarks on Father Cantalemessa’s Good Friday homily at Saint Peter’s were not worthy of the usual high standards that I have come to expect from Mr. Schorr. In fact, his superficial analysis of the incident demonstrates exactly the syndrome that Father Catalamessa was identifying in his homily.

I have read the entire homily, the theme of which is various kinds of violence, both physical and psychic. At no point in his homily did Father Catalamessa ‘defend against that which is indefensible’, as Daniel Schorr suggests. Nor did he refer to the ‘worst phases’ of anti-semitism, as Schorr misquotes him to have said. The use of that term would immediately lead one to think that Catalamessa was drawing an analogy with the Holocaust. He was not.[more...]

Life in Christ
Based on St Paul's Letter to the Romans, 8 talks by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa