RU 26/2006 - AUSCHWITZ, THE 'SILENCE OF GOD'?

- AUSCHWITZ/Poland: Benedict XVI undertook, during his 1st year of pontificate, two travels. One to the WYD of Cologne, in August 2005, with a very noticed visit to the synagogue of this city; the other one to Poland, end of May 2006, ending by a visit at Auschwitz. A strong sign: a German pope kneeling before the execution wall in the Auschwitz death camp, "during a big silence", as the newspapers underlined. But some Jews were not satisfied. Since his election, in spite of all kind of favorable steps towards them, they have continuously criticize our present Holy Father. When he was elected, they spilled the rumor that he had been member of the "Hitlerjugend" (Hitlerian youths) when he was a youngster. After the first three months of his pontificate, they criticized Benedict XVI not to have mentioned, in his list of prayer intentions for various terrorist attack victims in the world, the 5 Israeli deaths of the suicide attack of July 12th, 2005, in Jerusalem. And now, after the pope's visit at Auschwitz, they blame him for having denounced only "a handful of vicious criminals" (Hitler and his accomplices), instead of accusing the whole German people which they say is responsible of the biggest crime of humanity, the Shoah. In addition, he is denounced not to have mentioned at all the anti-semitism which, according to the national director of the Anti-Diffamation League, is currently ravaging the world. Letting aside the too nationalistic and partisan character of these accusations, let's go to the bottom of the problem. "Silence" is the keyword of Auschwitz. According to certain Jews, since God was absent or "silent" facing the drama of Auschwitz, it's now necessary to act in the same way facing God; no prayer must rise from this place to the Sky. In the name of this blasphemous reasoning, some years ago, they even required that the little Carmel sisters of Auschwitz leave the surroundings of the camp, what has been done by them in 1993 while obeying to pope John-Paul II: "For the major interest of the Church, I ask you to leave this place", he had written to them, and they humbly executed this order by exiling themselves 180 km to the East, to Czeszow close to the Ukrainian border. There they're always praying, as if they were in the very centre of Auschwitz, according to the magnificent desire of the Carmel order: to make rise to God the prayer of worship and love from the very place where the hell is apparently unleashed. On the occasion of one of the multiple pilgrimages of UNEC to Auschwitz "against the new genocide which is abortion", in the years 1990 to 1993, the Mother Superior of the Carmel had recalled them the example of Job: "Look at Job! Deprived of his earths, his sons, his house, and even of his health, seated on a dunghill, covered with wounds up to his neck, he prayed: 'Lord, thank you for having given to me a mouth for praising You', before he humbly became silent". What a lesson! An 'old white clothed man', Benedict XVI, aged 79, praying on his knees before the wall of execution near block 11 where Father Maximilian Kolbe had been tortured, renewed by this gesture the prayer of Job, but also the one of the Carmelites who have been chased by his predecessor 13 years ago, following a true 'diktat' which was imposed to him and in face of which he believed good to give in, and by this prayer Benedict XVI testified strongly, in the middle of the Auschwitz camp, that GOD is PRESENT, He is not silent, He is always Love. Thank you, Holy Father, for this exemplary gesture! - Very well, but here are two questions coming from perplexed Catholic journalists: 1) If Benedict XVI overtly prays inside the Auschwitz camp (which is forbidden by the present regulation of the "museum", as it has been said repeatedly to the pilgrims of UNEC), why doesn't he find the courage to recall the Carmel sisters from their exile? Is it tolerable that no-Catholic persons decide which Catholic persons are allowed to pray at Auschwitz: the pope YES, the Carmelites NO? 2) Yet worse, why doesn't Benedict XVI come forward to pray, with hundreds of Catholic groups who already are doing this with heroic courage since 30 years in USA and in Europe, before the abortion mills of today, new death camps scattered all over the world, places of the biggest genocide of all times, ABORTION? According to UN figures, the one billion abortion mark has been bypassed in the world... - Therefore the real question is no more: "Why was God silent face to Auschwitz?", but "Holy Father, why don't you get much more active facing the new drama of humanity, abortion?" It would be necessary to dispatch into the fight against this new mass murder, of a dimension never seen before, hundred millions of Catholics from all over the world for stopping this terrible massacre, if it's necessary even by starting to refuse to pay taxes to abortionist States... - Let's summarize: Are we like dead of fear? Fear of whom? - Thank you to pray, please, when you enter into a church during this summer, a) for our Holy Father Benedict XVI, courageous but never enough, b) for the poor 'perplexed" Catholic journalists' - that we are. - (ru; cf. BC June 4, TIME May 29).

- - A.M.D.G. - -