Pope Launches New Book Exonerating Jews

Pope launches new book exonerating Jews of Deicide

A book written by Pope Benedict XVI and released on [March 2, 2011] has reiterated a recent Catholic Church ruling that the Jewish people do not bear corporate responsibility for Jesus' death, as well as denying sections of the Gospels which say that workers in the Temple collaborated with the Romans to arrest and later execute Jesus.  "Many readers will find this section of the book particularly interesting as the Pope reviews the historical positions taken about this," said Father Joseph Fessio, founder and publisher of Ignatius Press, the publisher of the new book, adding that he expects the book to "generate a lot of discussion."

The book is entitled Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week - From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection.

One critic of the book commented that the Pope "could have saved himself a lot of trouble by simply reading the Apostle Paul's epistle to the Romans."

(For full article see: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=210480).

[TBC: There have been at least two attempts by earlier popes (Innocent IV - Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), Vol. 8, pp.393-394 and Gregory X- "Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory X: Letter on Jews, (1271-76) - Against the Blood Libel") to remove the “blood libel” against the Jews. They have never been successful because “Many lay Catholics and widely respected Catholic writers still hesitate to come to grips with the two millennia of Catholic antisemitism that prepared Catholics not only to perceive Jews in a negative way, but also primed them to accept the anti-Jewish aspects of secular ideas—and to take action on them” (http://www.academici.com/blog.aspx?bid=4222).]