Sexual abuse of a child causes the death of the life of that child as they know it. From that moment forward everything that happens to that child either re abuses them or begins a path to healing or new life. When I saw this cartoon I immediately thought of the McCarten Family who in June 2003 wrote an open letter to the driver of a car that killed their four year old daughter. I think their words apply here. They said “You have taken Georgia’s life and there is nothing you can do that will bring her back or ease our suffering. The only thing you can do is stop running away. You must face up to this and accept your punishment with all the grace dignity and fortitude you can muster. You must do this if you are to ever find the kind of peace you speak of in your letter.” They continue “There is nothing to forgive. There is nothing to beg for. Georgia is dead by your hand. That is all. Only you can redeem yourself. Only you can redeem your family and people’s honor”

It has been difficult to choose one article from the many available to use as a basis for prayer and reflection.

However on Wednesday 7 April  a cartoon was published in the Wellington newspaper the Dominion-Post which seemed to sum it all up. The cartoon contrasts a letter written to his people by the  Wellington Catholic archbishop, John Dew, apologizing to them for the shame and humiliation they are experiencing as a result of the crisis with the of the comments of Roman prelate who had trivialized these matters as “silly rumours” – Grace and Disgrace.

Cartoon source: The Dominion Post

Gaza is a giant prison for 1.5 million Palestinians. This time Egyptian authorities prevented the protestors from approaching Gaza’s Rafah gate. Like Israel, Egypt receives huge amounts of US aid. This ‘reward’ for its peace agreement with Israel also means Egypt works in tandem with Israeli/US policy. Thus the Palestinians continue to be cornered and stateless. Epstein is part of a number of Jewish people speaking out against the Israeli occupation and control of Palestinian lives and territory. Another is historian Ilan Pappe whose book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (1997), exposes the myths around the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

Pope Benedict chats with chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Sengni

Pope Benedict XVI defended his predecessor Pius XII against Jewish critics on Sunday, telling the audience at a Rome synagogue that the Vatican worked quietly to save Jews from the Nazis during World War 2.

Many Jews object to Benedict moving Pius toward sainthood, contending the wartime pope didn’t do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. The Vatican has maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives.

While he didn’t mention Pius by name, Benedict told Jewish leaders in the synagogue that the Vatican “itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way.”

Benedict said Catholics acted courageously to save Jews even as their extermination “tragically reached as far as Rome.” He spoke shortly after Jewish Community President Riccardo Pacifici criticised Pius, saying Italian Catholics worked to save Jews but the “silence” of Pius “still hurts as a failed action. “Pacifici said his grandparents were killed at the Auschwitz death camp while his father was saved by Italian nuns in a Florence convent.

I saw a programme on TV a few years ago and was astounded by my own naiveté at never having realised that many of the barons of business in NZ were in fact ethnically Jewish and/or religiously as well.  In fact I felt proud of the fact that I’d never even heard that household names like Hallensteins, Hannahs, Myers, the beer magnate of Lion Nathan, and several others were of Jewish origin.

So when I read that the Pope has recently been trying to mend fences with the Jewish people of Rome and at the same time promoting the cause of Pius XII I start to wonder what all the fuss is about.

Forgiveness leads to closure
No I am not at all a holocaust denier – Of the atrocities that happened in the last century there is none worse than the systematic genocide of the Jewish people across Europe.  And I know that at the funeral of every serviceman or woman I’ve attended I have heard or seen two phrases “Lest we forget” and “We will Remember.”

It is indeed wonderful that we remember those who gave their lives for the sake of freedom, and that we do not forget those who had their lives taken from them in the same conflagration. But, we also need to be able to forgive and almost forget – we cannot forever live hating everyone from Germany or Japan.  We have to move on.  It has become a commonplace saying now that people need to be able to grieve and move on.  We call that experience “closure”.

In countries where people cannot reach closure we are doomed to repeat over and over the same rivalries that have fuelled conflicts in the past century in the Middle East, in Ireland, in the Baltics and elsewhere.  Until there is forgiveness it is impossible to reach closure on hatred.