Pope exonerates Jews for their role in Jesus’ death

With child sexual abuses cases involving priests continuing to roll in, some will view any good deed by the Catholic Church with a healthy dose of skepticism and cynicism. But many Jewish leaders today are hailing a move by Pope Benedict XVI to right a what they believe is a centuries old wrong--the blame many Christian factions have heaped upon the Jewish people collectively for the execution of Jesus Christ.

In a new book, "Jesus of Nazareth-Part II," being published by the Vatican on the life and death of Jesus, Pope Benedict--the German-born pontiff who involuntarily served in the Hitler Youth as a child--grants a pardon to the Jewish people for their role in Jesus' death. He does not, however, let the Jewish leaders of the time off the hook.

Reports the Associated Press:

In the book, Benedict re-enacts Jesus' final hours, then analyzes each Gospel account to explain why Jews as a whole cannot be blamed for having turned him over. Rather, Benedict concludes, it was the Jewish leadership, the "Temple aristocracy" and a few supporters of the figure Barabbas who were responsible, but not Jews as a whole. "How could the whole people have been present at this moment to clamor for Jesus' death?" Benedict asks.

He deconstructs one particular account which has the crowd saying, "His blood be on us and on our children" — a phrase frequently cited as evidence of the collective guilt Jews bore and the curse that they carried as a result. The phrase has been so incendiary that director Mel Gibson was reportedly forced to drop it from the subtitles of his 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ," although it remained in the spoken Aramaic.

But Benedict said Jesus' death wasn't about punishment, but rather salvation. Jesus' blood, he said, "does not cry out for vengeance and punishment, it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone, it is poured out for many, for all."

Benedict has sparked the ire of the Jewish community in the past when he allowed a bishop who'd been exiled for stating that Hitler didn't intend to exterminate Jews back into the church, and when he placed Pope Pius XII on the path to sainthood--many historians believe the World War II-era pope looked the other way while Hitler's forces committed atrocities throughout Europe.

And perhaps it's worth noting in all of this that Jesus was, in fact, a Jew himself, a fact that too few people seem to remember--so we can only assume that the Pope's proclamation extends to Jesus' own personal responsibility in his own death. But then again, God already forgave his son for his sins, along with all of our sins, according to the Bible, so we suppose it's a moot point anyway.

(Andrew Medichini/AP)