{"id":43,"date":"2010-04-26T10:06:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T10:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/04\/when-a-pope-needs-friends-by-rabbi-shmuley-boteach.html"},"modified":"2010-04-26T10:06:28","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T10:06:28","slug":"when-a-pope-needs-friends-by-rabbi-shmuley-boteach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/04\/when-a-pope-needs-friends-by-rabbi-shmuley-boteach.htm","title":{"rendered":"When a Pope Needs Friends By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Since the public announcement of my upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict this Wednesday at the Vatican, courtesy of my friend Gary Krupp, many of my close Jewish friends have expressed not approval but disappointment. ‘They blamed the pedophile priest scandal on Jews and compared the attacks on the Church to anti-Semitism. How could you, Shmuley?’ ‘The Pope was in the Hitler Youth and he wants to make Pope Pius XII, who never condemned the holocaust, into a saint.’ ‘The Church has always been anti-Semitic. You’re being used.’<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Come now. Jewish insularity is the ultimate
\nobstacle to the dissemination of Jewish values, while Jewish contempt for the
\nnon-Jewish world because of its past immorality and Jew-hatred is itself
\nimmoral and hateful. Pope Benedict is being kicked to the curb in nearly every
\npart of the world. But I as a Jew do not forget that for all his failures in
\nproperly handing the abomination of pedophile Priests, for which the Church
\nmust atone and repent, Benedict has been a great friend to the Jewish
\ncommunity, visiting an unprecedented three Synagogues in four years as well as
\nthe State of Israel. And whom does it benefit to see a mighty Church fall?
\n The millions of orphans the Church tends to worldwide? The schools it
\nruns and the pupils it teaches? The hope its Priests give to the poor,
\nespecially in the third world?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have been one of Pope Pius XII’s foremost critics
\nin the entire world. But Benedict is not Pius and before we holler for his
\ndemise let’s recall that as the Cardinal Secretary of State he did more to extend
\nthe Church’s hand in friendship to other people’s and faiths than nearly anyone
\nwho preceded him.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There is much in Jewish law and tradition that
\ncould bring healing to the Church, beginning with the Jewish laws of modesty
\nand sexual seclusion. In Judaism a man and woman who are not married are not
\nallowed to be in a locked room together. When I was Rabbi to Michael Jackson I
\ntook this law and applied it his special circumstances. I told him that the
\nonly way he could rehabilitate his reputation, after the pedophile accusations
\nagainst him, was to quite simply foreswear ever being alone with a child. I
\neven grabbed Michael’s shoulders and made him promise me he would never seclude
\nhimself with a child not his own. And for the two years we were close to he
\nstuck to the script. When he and I launched our initiative to help children,
\nthe focus was on working with their<\/i> parents<\/i> to prioritize their
\nkids, rather than with the kids themselves. It wasn’t until Michael stupidly
\ndisregarded this simple advice and decided to share a bed – however
\nplatonically – with a young child and then brag about it on international TV
\nthat he was arrested and started the inexorable decline that ended in his death
\na few years later.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Church should embrace the same straightforward
\nrule. No priest should be allowed to be in alone with a child. Period. If a
\nPriest needs to speak to a child alone, the door must never be locked and there
\nmust always be the possibility that they can be intruded upon by outsiders. If
\nthey walk in a park, it cannot be one that is empty of people. This way we’ll
\nknow that any Priest who breaks the guidelines will be punished whether or not
\nthey abuse a child. It would significantly curb the potential for any act of
\nchild molestation and might even discourage pedophiles from entering the
\npriesthood in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But more importantly, it’s time for Jews and
\nCatholics to work together to promote new values in America. While our country
\nis gripped in an epidemic of materialism and an orgy of greed, the only values
\nreligion seems to talk about is opposition to gay marriage and abortion. But
\nthe emphasis on the negative is not going to create much that is positive. We
\nneed values that promote family, strengthens marriage, inspires selflessness in
\nchildren, and advances the cause of a purposeful life that makes us less
\nobsessive about money and career.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is why I wish to discuss with Pope Benedict
\nthe Catholic Church getting behind our ‘Turn Friday Night into Family Night’
\ninitiative, the push for a global family dinner night. Imagine if all the
\nworld’s families – Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Atheist, Agnostic – sat down
\nevery Friday night and embraced our ‘Triple Two.” Parents giving their children
\ntwo uninterrupted hours every Friday night, inviting two guests to teach the
\nchildren sharing and hospitality, and discussing two important subjects rather
\nthan a movie or celebrity gossip. And Friday night is the one evening that
\nunites all. It’s sacred already to Jews and Muslims. Up until Second Vatican
\nCouncil it was a night where Catholics were forbidden to eat meat. And for the
\nnon-religious it’s the beginning of the weekend and sets the tone the
\nactivities that will follow. If the family gets together on Friday night,
\nchances are they’ll do more stuff together on Saturday and Sunday as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the right time for the Catholic Church to
\nown a global family dinner night. The pedophile priest scandal has reinforced
\nthe conclusion of some that the Church is an old boys club that at best makes
\nconcessions to the weakness of human nature by allowing men and women to marry.
\nThe ideal, however, is celibacy and childlessness. The Church must return to
\nits previous posture as a champion of family and what better way than to
\nmandate that all Catholic families worldwide do as Jesus did. Put the worldly
\nstuff away on Friday nights and consecrate it as an evening of holiness and
\ntogetherness.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is founder of This World: The
\nValues Network. His major book on the universal Jewish values that can enrich
\nthe lives of every man and woman, Renewal, will be published by Basic Books on
\nMay 14<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup>. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/span><\/p>\n

*Follow Shmuley on TWITTER!  http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/RabbiShmuley<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*Shmuley’s on Facebook! http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/facebook-shmuley<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*Buy Rabbi Shmuley’s newest book THE KOSHER SUTRA at  http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/koshersutra<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*Join the national “Turn Friday Night Into Family Night”
\ninitiative.  Go to www.FridayisFamily.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

*See Shmuley on the web at www.Shmuley.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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