On 2 March, the final day of The International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee (ICJLC) meeting in Paris excerpts from the second volume of Pope Benedict’s life of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, were released to the press. According to the excerpts the pope agreed with the Vatican’s 1965 Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions (Nostre Aetate) asking Catholics to not read the gospels as blaming present day Jews as guilty in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. According to the pope’s book, as with Nostre Aetate, today’s Jews are “exonerated” of the charge of deicide. Jewish leaders around the world, including Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman warmly welcomed the announcement.

In the excerpts the pope responded to the deicide charge appearing in the Matthew gospel (27:25), His blood is on us and on our children! "How,” the pope writes, “could the whole [Jewish] people have been present at this moment to clamor for Jesus'' death?" In other words guilt should only be attributed to those responsible at that time, and only to those Matthew represents as present before Pilate. In agreement with Nostre Aetate Benedict reminds his readers that, “Jesus'' death wasn''t about punishment, but rather salvation.” So according to this interpretation of the texts neither the Sanhedrin, accused of charging Jesus for blasphemy, nor the mob Matthew describes as demanding punishment should be held responsible for the crucifixion: God having created the event as a doorway to salvation makes all involved participants to God’s plan. There is no question of “guilt.”

Does papal 'exoneration' mean no more Holocausts?