PrintMay 15, 2009
WaPo cleanses Jews from Nazareth
The Washington Post's May 15 edition featrues an article about the grand finale of Pope Benedict XVI's Mideast travels -- his visit to Nazareth, "Thousands Greet Pope in Nazareth -- Mass Serves as Boilsterous Finale to Pontiff's Eight day Tour of the Middle East."
Correspodent Howard Schneider's report paints an uplifting picture of Muslim-Catholic relations in a city with a large Arab population.
"Arabic melodies alternated with the sounds of English and Latin....Viva al baba! the crowd shouted lending an Arabic touch to a standard Italian cheer, Viva il papa!" The gathering was dominated by "local Chrsitans, most of them Israeli Arabs, but there were also pilgrims from Europe and Africa, groups of nuns and priests, Polish U.N. soldiers, Hebrew-speaking Catholics, knots of men from the West Bank....Nazareth is predominantly Muslim, although its Christian population is strong and relations between the two faiths are considered good. The elected mayor is Christian....Muslims and Christians on the streets....."
Well, we get the picture of a day in the pope's travels of great amity and positive inter-faith relations between Christians and Muslims. But Schneider's picture of Benedict's day in Nazareth is incomplete.
Where are the Jews? Were there any at all in Nazareth for the pope's visit? One certainly might conclude so from Schneider's "Judenrein" piece.
Except, that wasn't the case at all.
There was an important inter-faith meeting with the pope at the Basilica of the Annunciation of representatives of all three faiths -- Christian, Muslim and Jewish. No mention of this by Schneider.
In a rare spontaneous moment for this stiff German pope, Benedict got to his feet, held hands with Muslims and Jews, and joined them in singing with Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein, "Shalom, Salam, Lord Grant Us Peace." Not a word about this touching personal outreach by Benedict to Muslims and Jews in Schneider's article.
In his greetings to religious leaders of all three faiths, the pope declared, "By molding the hearts of the young, we mold the future of humanity itself. Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence while preparing them to be builders of a better world." An important message, in fact the hallmark of Benedict's visit, spanning across all faiths, including Judaism, yet no mention of it by Schneider.
During his visit to Nazareth, Benedict also held a 15-minute meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Franciscan convent next to the basilica. The pope made a pitch for advancing the peace process while Netanyahu said he asked Benedict "as a moral figure, to make his voice heard loud and continuously against the declarations coming from Iran of their intention to destroy Israel."
Here was the leader of the Jewish state pleading with the leader of the world's Catholics to use his moral stature to deflect the greatest existential threat to Israel -- and Schneider makes no mention of it whatsoever!
Wire services and other media featured articles that accurately reflected inclusive pictures of Muslims, Christians and Jews during the pope's visit to Nazareth.
But not the Washington Post. Schneider somehow found no room for Jews in the birthplace of the most revered Jew in Christendom -- Jesus of Nazareth.
