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Subject:       Jerusalem Embassy Initiative/Commentary:   CATHOLIC ATTITUDES
               TOWARDS JERUSALEM by Rabbi Yirmeyahu Bindman


Jerusalem Embassy Initiative/Commentary:  CATHOLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS JERUSALEM


by Rabbi Yirmeyahu Bindman


Even though the Roman
Catholic Church has had its "temporal sovereignty" reduced to a symbolic
level by the Lateran Treaty of 1929, it still holds fast to the concept of
sovereignty which was once expressed in the Church's rule over far larger
territories.

This concept was introduced into Roman rule when Catholic Christianity
became the Roman Empire's official religion and when the Roman Emperor left
for Constantinople, leaving the Western administration in the hands of the
Bishop of Rome, namely the Pope himself.  Since the Roman Empire was by
then ruling over Jews after the Churban (destruction of the Second Temple),
the Catholic Church considered it natural that its own civil authority as
an ideological ruler should extend over the Jews as well.

Therefore, we must look for the origins of present-day Catholic policies
towards Jerusalem and the State of Israel in the Catholic Church's rule
over the Jews of Rome itself during the centuries after the Catholic Church
became the state religion of the Roman Empire, up until the Emancipation
altered the status of the Jews of Europe.

The Catholic Church has shown no sign of abandoning its own root concept,
that its temporal sovereignty should essentially extend over Jews.  The
Catholic Church still uses its diplomatic, political and cultural influence
to achieve this goal as closely as possible and in pursuit of whatever
historic anti-Jewish ("anti-Semitic") policies it wishes.

Everywhere in Europe where Jews lived under Catholic sovereigns the
Catholic Church would lobby against them, but it was not always heeded by
rulers who had wider considerations.  In the Papal States however, where
the Catholic Church was itself the sovereign, it made an example of its
methods of dealing with Jews in order to show its contempt and disdain for
them.

There were degrading ceremonies at the coronation of each Pope.  Jewish
communal representatives were compelled to bring a Sefer Torah to meet the
Pope who would say "excellent Law, detestable people", much as Christian
propagandists do today.  The Catholic Church compelled Jews to attend
conversionist sermons, a coercive form of the missionary 'persuasion'
tactics in use today.  Tax policies were directed at the Jewish business
community in such a way as to show lack of partnership with its enterprise,
so that Jewish financial
usefulness would not compromise the Catholic Church's theological contempt
for Jews.

Political institutions were formed and directed for this purpose.  The
Jewish community of the Papal State, "Jerusalem in exile", was governed by
the Cardinal-Vicarate which consisted of the Cardinal-Vicar, Prelato
Viceregente, Prelato Luogotenente Civile and Luogotenente Criminale.  These
four functionaries of the sovereign Catholic Church body represent its
views of Jewish life and its intentions regarding them, traced through to
the present as necessary.  Each of these function-viewpoints can be
discerned in Catholic Church statements and negotiating positions today.

The present question therefore mostly concerns the Lateran Treaty of 1929
itself, since it represents the transition from the absolutist Papacy of
the past to the 'flexible' Papacy of the present.  The ostensible purpose
of the Lateran Treaty was to settle the issues of Papal territorial claims
in Italy which had remained unresolved since the time of Garibaldi.  In the
context of the Emancipation this also meant maintaining the religious
claims of the Catholic Church, through agreement with Mussolini's Fascist
reaction, against Communist insurgency in general and Jewish Communism in
particular, and continuing any anti-Jewish policies that the Catholic
Church itself might deem necessary.

The question of Catholic Church sovereignty over Jews within the framework
of the Lateran Treaty of 1929 is crucial for understanding Catholic
attitudes and policies towards Jews and the State of Israel today.  Whether
Catholic Church sovereignty over Jews was considered abolished by the
Emancipation, which the Lateran Treaty opposed, or whether sovereignty was
maintained in some tacit form which the Catholic Church could use in any
other way, was unrelated to Jewish residence in any area (Vatican City)
where the Catholic Church wa still sovereign.

Vatican recognition of the State of Israel, still as a "Jerusalem in exile"
(which in all candor it is), remains directed at securing maximum legal
independence for Christians and their anti-Jewish Muslim Arab allies in the
Land of Israel in the face of anything that Israel might say or do.  This
includes Catholic support for Israel's Muslim Arab enemies and pushing the
State of Israel into a "peace" agreement with these enemies which leaves
Israel as helpless as possible in the face of ideological or military
challenges from Muslim Arabs.

As an institution whose purpose is to break the G-d given universal
Noachide Laws, or obtain "indulgences" for doing so by "selling" other
considerations over the negotiating table, the Catholic Church cannot vote
itself out of existence even once the Noachide Laws become public
knowledge.  The Catholic Church can only be challenged by the further
spread of Torah among non-Jews, to the point where the Church's true
purposes can no longer be disguised from day to day.


Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yirmeyahu Bindman
Jerusalem, D.C. (David's Capital)

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