David Biema Quotations

The pope has long promised to lead the church in coming to terms with some of its sins on the occasion of the Jubilee. For him, it's the culmination of many years of work, as a pontiff who lost a lot of his Jewish friends during the horror of the Holocaust and questioned the complicity of his own faith as a result.

Above and beyond giving a mea culpa, John Paul II will attempt to frame what the church means by a mea culpa. His belief that the church strengthens itself through a frank acknowledgment of past sins is a remarkable thing. But the Vatican is also being careful to make clear that this isn't simply a spectacular act of self-flagellation before hostile outsiders; it's about the church's need to express regret and ask for God's pardon rather than to satisfy outsiders.

Even when they released the 'Memory and Reconciliation' document, the Vatican made clear that there were different camps inside the church, some of whom felt the church was going too far in its apology and others who believe it hadn't gone far enough. Although this pope has gone a lot further than any in history toward acknowledging corporate responsibility on the part of the church, he's pushing against significant opposition, and the outcome will still be regarded as insufficient in some quarters.

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League is unhappy with what's contained in 'Memory and Reconciliation,' because they believe it still fails to admit the church's corporate responsibility for any complicity in the Holocaust. It lays the blame on flawed humans -- although the document uses the term 'generations' to imply this wasn't simply a few bad apples -- rather than admitting any flaws on the part of the church itself.