Controversy still rages as German Pope visits Israel

Pope Benedict XVI began his five-day tour of Israel today amid renewed controversy about whether his presence in the Jewish state is appropriate. Israelis are well aware that as a 14-year-old, Joseph Ratzinger, as he then was, joined the Hitler Youth and two years later was drafted into the Wehrmacht. Whether he was enthusiastic or not, is not the issue. Also, the Vatican has been criticised by Jews ever since the war for not doing enough to prevent the Nazis' anti-Semitic atrocities and Benedict has invited further criticism with his decision to readmit the Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson to the Catholic Church in January.
 
"A state welcome for the Pope would be turning our backs on the millions of Jews who were killed in the shadow of the Christian religion of grace and mercy," Michael Ben Ari, a far-right Israeli MP, told the Israeli parliament last week.

Although the trip has been billed as a pilgrimage and not a religious visit, Pope Benedict will be holding a series of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. However, it is his visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, that is likely to be the most scrutinised part of his tour. The 82-year-old is due to lay a wreath but not actually look around the exhibition, which includes a photograph of one of his predecessors, Pope Pius XII, who has often been referred to as "Hitler's Pope".

The caption to the photograph has been the centre of a bitter feud between Catholics and Jews as it claims that when Pius heard about the mass execution of Jews, he "did not protest either verbally or in writing" and did not intervene to try to prevent Jews from being transported from Rome to Auschwitz. Those claims have been strenuously denied by the Vatican as the move to canonise Pope Pius still gathers support from the Catholic community.
 
Pope Benedict becomes only the third Pope to visit the holy land (the Vatican has only officially recognised Israel as a state since 1993). Benedict's immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who grew up among Jews in Poland, made a trip to Israel in 2000 during which he spent two hours in Yad Vashem where he also talked with Holocaust survivors. Despite the goodwill generated by that trip, Jewish calls to open up the Vatican's wartime archives and shed light on the Catholic Church’s behaviour during WW2 are still being deflected.
 
Howver, Benedict, who will be protected in Israel by thousands of Israeli law enforcement officers as part of 'Operation White Robe', has insisted he will pay his respects to Holocaust victims. "I will have the opportunity to honour the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah [Holocaust]," he said. "Sadly anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world. This is totally unacceptable." ·