But there are still lingering issues. While the pope in Israel apologized repeatedly for injustice perpetrated by individual Christians against the Jews, he would not admit the fault of the Church itself. There is no Jewish equivalent of the concept of infallibility of the pope, and it concerns us that the Church would continue to sanction anti-Semitic papal actions. For example:

And then there is the issue of the 19th century Pope Pius IX, who kidnapped a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, from his parents' home in Bologna, Italy. Mortara was carried off to Rome and raised as the pope's own Catholic son. At the time, the case was well-publicized and there was widespread international outrage. The New York Times carried no fewer than 20 editorials calling on Pope Pius IX to return the boy to his family -- but he refused. And now this September, John Paul II plans to announce the formal beatification of Pius IX.

So you see, even though John Paul II has initiated a historic change of direction in Church attitudes, we Jews still retain some very mixed feelings.

In Israel, Minister Michael Melchior expressed his deep regret that the Vatican had decided to link the beatification of Pope John XXIII with that of Pope Pius IX. He said that while the former was a righteous gentile who paved the way for genuine dialogue with the Jewish people, the beatification of Pius IX was liable to be interpreted by the Jewish world as indicating agreement with the Church's record of forced conversions.

"We have no desire to interfere in the Vatican's decision-making process, but as a minister in the Israeli government who had the honor of hosting Pope John Paul II at the Western Wall, and as someone who saw his visit as a positive historic turning point, I would have expected the Vatican to show greater sensitivity towards believers from other faiths," Melchior said.

In his homily before a crowd of some 100,000 in St. Peter's Square, the pope said that holiness is not immune to historical influence. "Sanctity lives in history, and every saint is not removed from the limitations and personal conditioning of our human nature," he said. "By beatifying one of its sons, the Church does not celebrate particular historical choices he made, but rather points him out for imitation and veneration for his virtues and praising the divine grace that shines in them."

There was only scattered applause when the pope said Pius IX had been "very loved, but also hated and slandered." By contrast, the crowd roared in approval when he spoke of Pope John XXIII, known as "The Good Pope." John called the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which thrust the Church into the modern world, ended the Latin mass and gave bishops more power.

Pius IX's reign from 1846 to 1878 was the longest in Church history. As pontiff, Pius adamantly opposed religious tolerance and defined the doctrine of infallibility, and once referred to Jews as "dogs."

Among Jews, he is infamous for his role in the 1858 abduction of a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara. The child had been baptized by an over-zealous Catholic servant in his home, and papal police intervened to enforce a civil law that Jewish children who had been baptized had to be raised as Christians. Ignoring international protests, Pius IX made Edgardo his personal ward and set him on the road to the priesthood.

Rabbi David Rosen, director of the Anti-Defamation League in Israel and a leading figure in interreligious dialogue, said that the beatification ceremony was doubly regrettable, not only because it took place at all, but because Pius IX was being beatified together with John XXIII. "It's not the business of the Jewish people to tell the Catholic Church who its saints are, but if the church, as it says, hopes to relate to the Jewish people with an attitude of mutual respect, this is not the way to do it," Rosen said.

The ADL leader added that, because of Pius IX's association with the Mortara case, the beatification would appear to be an endorsement of forced baptism and an expression of insensitivity to Jewish concerns. Rosen said that the fact that the beatification is linked to the internal workings of the Catholic Church does not make it more palatable.

Rosen also noted that the Jewish community had been notified relatively recently, at a seminar sponsored by the Prime Minister's Committee on Interreligious Relations two months ago, that the beatification was in the works.

"I particularly regret that there were no consultations with the Jewish community to inform us that this was in the pipeline. Obviously Jewish sensibilities were involved. It is not what we expected in this new age of relations with the Jewish people," Rosen said.

In Rome on Saturday, some 300 Jews and reformist Catholics protested against the beatification of Pius IX, a figure regarded as an extreme anti-Semite, while elsewhere in the city, a group of Catholic traditionalists and Italian nobles held a smaller gathering in favor of the beatification.

"Pius's beatification is quite simply a scandal," said Enrico Modigliani, a member of the board of Rome's Jewish community and a former member of the Italian parliament.

"In a year when the Church has made an effort to apologize for the treatment of the Jews, it is not right to beatify Pius IX, who was one of the worst antisemites," he added.

Also present at the demonstration was Elena Mortara, the great-great niece of Edgardo Mortara.

"Pope John Paul II's declaration yesterday that Pius is among the Roman Catholic Church's blessed is the reopening of a wound, she said.

SOURCE: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/09/04/ News/News.11709.html 09/04/00 By Haim Shapiro JERUSALEM