Visit to Auschwitz, Birkenau ‘profound’ for archbishop
Inspires thoughts about redemptive value of suffering

OFFERING KADDISH PRAYER — Rabbi Ronald Shapiro of Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee, offers a kaddish prayer (a Jewish prayer recited by mourners at public services after the death of a close relative) at the conclusion of a memorial Mass honoring Pope John Paul II, April 8 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

By Brian T. Olszewski
Catholic Herald Staff

ST. FRANCIS — Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan had visited Auschwitz and Birkenau twice, and each visit, he recalled, had made an impact upon him, but not as much as his third visit on Sept. 2.

“I will be thinking about this for a long time,” the archbishop said, emphasizing “long.”

The visit, sponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Conn., included three rabbis and six U.S. Catholic bishops.

“This was the first time I was there with members of the Jewish community,” he said. “To be with them and to sense their intense grief and the impact this would have on Jews was profound.”

The archbishop noted that while others were put to death at the Nazi camps, “Jews have a unique claim.”

“Others were put to death for other reasons — for example, they were leaders in the academic community or they opposed the Nazis,” Archbishop Dolan said. “The Jews were killed out of pure, raw, racial hatred; they were killed because of who they were.”

Following the visit to the camps, the group engaged in nearly four hours of discussion, including a presentation by Rabbi Irving Greenberg of the Jewish Life Network on faith after Auschwitz.

The archbishop noted that in his life Rabbi Greenberg has gone from being a “sarcastic atheist to having a vibrant faith.”

As the rabbi articulated how God was in the midst of the camps, “suffering with the people,” the archbishop made his own application.

“It made me think about the redemptive value of suffering,” he said. “Is there life that has come from this?” He noted that it had.

The archbishop said one of the reasons the trip was such a positive experience is that it worked on three levels.

“First, we all got along,” he said. “We became friends. But beyond that, there was a devotional, prayerful level.”

Archbishop Dolan said that this included discussions about the afterlife following a visit to a Krakow cemetery and the rabbis coming to the daily Masses the bishops celebrated.

The third level was theological.

“We had excellent discussions, allowing us to ask questions” the archbishop noted. “It was an atmosphere of civility and friendship.”

He said that the rabbis have “tremendous regard for the Catholic Church and for Pope John Paul II.”

“Their love for Pope John Paul II is superb,” Archbishop Dolan said. “And they are happy with Pope Benedict, too.”

While in Krakow, the archdiocese which Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was leading in 1978 when he was elected Pope John Paul II, the group met with the late pontiff’s secretary and current Krakow archbishop, Stanislaw Dziwisz at his residence. During the visit, they celebrated Mass in the chapel where Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest in 1946.

The tour stopped in Rome where the group spent an afternoon in a synagogue, met with the vice president of the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, spoke with Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican, and visited the tomb of Pope John Paul II.

While the trip came at what he termed “one of the busiest times of the year,” Archbishop Dolan said there was a reason why he made it a priority.

“I have inherited an excellent tradition of Catholic-Jewish dialogue here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,” he said. “I want to strengthen it and to be a part of it. This experience [the trip] will help me do this.”

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