Canonization of Jewish-born nun outrages some Jewish leaders

VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- Under the towering marble figures of the Jews who founded Christianity, Pope John Paul II on Sunday decreed the first Jewish-born saint of the modern era: Edith Stein, a nun killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

From now on, the pope said, Catholics should commemorate all the Holocaust's murdered Jews when they annually mark the day Stein died -- August 9.

"In the martyr Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, so many differences meet and are resolved in peace," John Paul, using the name Stein chose in the church, told the thousands filling St. Peter's Square on a cool, overcast morning.

"The value of her testimony is to render ever stronger the bridge of mutual understanding between Christians and Jews," he said.

The 78-year-old pope appeared weak at times, even in pain, during the 2 1/2-hour ceremony, but his voice remained strong and determined as he attempted to soothe Jewish concerns.

'A public slap in the face to the Jewish community'

The controversy over Stein, which has been going on for decades, boils down to one question: Was she killed because she was born a Jew or because she was a Catholic nun?

Rabbi David Rosen, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Israel office, said the Catholic Church had failed to emphasize Stein's Jewish roots.

"She wasn't killed because she was a Catholic ... she was killed because she was born to Jewish parents, and that is what needed to be emphasized in any statement about her death," Rosen said.

Other Jewish leaders also lashed out following the canonization.

"It's outrageous. This is a very public slap in the face to the Jewish community,' said Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office.

"The pope is sending an extremely negative message to the Jewish community that, in the eyes of the Catholic church, the best Jews are those that convert to Catholicism," he said.

Pontiff pays tribute to Holocaust victims

Stein

The Pontiff paid tribute to all victims of the Holocaust, saying the new saint's feast day each year would help to remind the world "of that bestial plan to eliminate a people, which cost millions of Jewish brothers and sisters their lives."

During the ceremony, relatives of Holocaust victims -- Stein's family -- shared a dais with the leader of Germany, Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Catholic Church officials said Stein is believed to be the first Jewish-born saint since the Apostles, whose statues looked down on the ceremony.

Stein turned down chance to escape deportation

Stein was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on October 12, 1891 -- Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

She became an atheist at 14, and later wrote books on philosophy as part of a brilliant academic career.

She converted to Catholicism at the age of 29 and became a Carmelite nun in 1934, a year after Hitler took power.

Because of her Jewish origins, she was smuggled into the Netherlands, where her superiors felt she would be safer.

In 1942, Adolf Hitler's regime ordered all the converts in the Netherlands shipped to Auschwitz, its way of punishing the Dutch bishops for speaking out against him.

Stein was offered a chance to escape deportation, the pope said, but she turned it down.

"'Why should I be excluded?'" he quoted her as asking. "If I cannot share the fate of my brothers and sisters, my life is, in a certain way, destroyed."

At Auschwitz, it is believed that she was taken almost directly from the trains to the gas chambers.

Pope fails to address church's role during Holocaust

During the canonization ceremony, the pope didn't address the Catholic Church's role during the Holocaust

Further fueling the controversy over Stein was the absence during the ceremony of any indications that the pontiff planned a fuller accounting of the church's actions during the Holocaust, as Jewish groups have asked.

The family of Stein's grandnephew, Michael Biberstein of Kensington, California, wrote the pope in August, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The family praised John Paul for his "goodwill to the Jewish people" but said the past is "still waiting to be fully acknowledged."

Rosen said Stein's canonization contributed to an imbalanced view of the Catholic Church's role during the Holocaust.

"There is a sense that the Catholic Church has been portrayed exclusively as a victim of Nazi atrocities rather than as a collaborator at times,' Rosen said.

Rabbi Daniel Farhi, head of the French Jewish Liberal Movement, said the pope wounded Holocaust survivors.

Tullia Zevi, former president of the Italian Jewish communities, said Stein's canonization was at best "an ambiguous choice which could hurt dialogue between Catholics and Jews."

In March, the church issued a long-awaited report on its actions during the Holocaust. The document expressed remorse that some Catholics did not do more, but praised the conduct of the wartime pope, Pius XII, whom some accuse of failing to do enough against the Nazis.

Improving relations with Jews has been a tenet of John Paul's papacy, as has been the creation of saints. More people have been canonized during John Paul's nearly 20-year-old papacy than in any other.

Rome Bureau Chief Gayle Young, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.