Promulgatrix of Christ-Killer Slander against the Jews to be Beatified.

[richardf8]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3710810.stm

Anne Catherine Emmerich's The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is a work that is far more explicit in its efforts to blame the Jews for "killing Christ," than Gibson's film derived from it. It is riddled from cover to cover with anti-semitic slurs (and yes, I've cracked the cover on this dreck).

That this pope would beatify this woman really does give the lie to his earlier ecumenical efforts, and makes clearer than any false words offered up at the wailing wall that the Catholic Church's position with respect to the Jews has not changed one whit since the days of Chrysostom, Augustine, or the Inquisition.

Comments

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

So Emmerich's book not only blames Jesus's death particularly on the Sanhedrin and a large crowd of other Jews, but indicates that Jews from that day to this are particularly villainous? If you have the stomach to provide an example, I'd like to see it.

Christian sources say it was forecast that the Son of Man, like all Israeli prophets before him, would be rejected by his own country. Stressing the role of ancient Jews in Jesus' execution does not necessitate a belief that Jews generally or universally are worse than others, altho certainly many have jumped to that unfortunate conclusion.

I've been reading The Essential Catholic Catechism. It says that the Church, whatever amount of blame it puts on Jews, has never favored their outright persecution. More than I can say for Martin Luther.

[richardf8]

Next time I'm at a bookstore I'll snag a copy, and copy some stuff down for you. It's not as if I'm going to reward a publisher for printing it by buying it.

Oh, and point of information: there were no Israelis prior to 1948. There were, however Israelites and, later, Jews.

Also, I would be very interested in learning what a Catechism published prior to Vatican II would have to say on the matter. "Always and Everywhere" can be surprisingly relative terms when looked at against the facts of the past.

Bear in mind that Luther, for all his disagreements with the Church, was Catholic. He was indeed horribly anti-Judaic, but that was not so much an aberration as one would like to think.

And now, I'm going to recommend a book to you: Sister Mary Boys' Has God Only One Blessing? There are few Christians engaging in Jewish/Christian dialogue who have as solid an understanding of the problems presented by the genre to which Emmerich's work belongs, as she does; though I cannot recall whether she cites Emmerich's work explicitly. It was really Gibson who propelled Emmerich to contemporary fame.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

I may check that book out, tho I have a lotta books on my shelf that I have yet to read.

I know that Luther started out Catholic, but you can't deny that he abandoned the Catholic Church. By an already existing definition (thanks to the schism with the Orthodox Church), a Catholic would recognize at least partial authority of the Church in Rome. He also started out more tolerant of Jews, from what I read earlier this year.

It hadn't occurred to me that "Israeli" applied strictly to people from the political nation rather than to the tribe. Thanks for the reminder.

From what the paper tells me in brief, Emmerich is getting beatified not for her visions of, among other things, devils talking among Jews (which would not be unique to that culture) but for her general virtue in life, as evidenced by her persistence in the face of persecution.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

I just consulted an intensely Catholic friend.

"I would say that saints are not to be regarded as perfect in any sense during their lives on Earth, and the things they write are not considered
authoritative. Only the decisions of ecumenical (whole Church) councils and very special declarations by Popes (the first example of which was Peters decision to include non-Jews in the Church) are authoritative. The Popes repeated ecumenical and penitent gestures toward the Jewish community should therefore provide a guide through which to interpret Emmerichs life, writings, and beatification. Everything a Christian writes or says must be interpreted in light of the teaching of the whole rest of the church throughout the world and throughout history, and things either kept or thrown away accordingly.... If you ask any Catholic I know, they would say that the anti-semitic parts of Emmerichs works are heretical and deserve condemnation. Many other saints have written things that are heretical, but we do not censor or edit them just because they make some mistakes.... And of course, anti-semitism is a very stupid heresy. The Pope says so, I say so, the Church says so."