c. 1997 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ She was born of one faith and enriched by another, a German Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of 31.

But 55 years after the death of Edith Stein, Catholics and Jews remain divided on the simple but profoundly emotional question: Was she exterminated by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1942 because she was born a Jew or for her Catholic beliefs?

The debate over Stein’s proper place in history erupted 10 years ago when the Catholic Church beatified her as a martyr for her role as a Catholic educator.

But the controversy has been reignited, as Pope John Paul II declared Thursday (May 22) his intention to canonize Stein, who adopted the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1923 upon entering the Carmelite order. No date for the canonization ceremony has been set.

The decision to exalt her as a Catholic saint, among the most rare forms of reverence reserved for faithful men and women, stems from what some believe was her intercession in saving the life in 1987 of a young Boston girl, who fully recovered from a coma.

Jewish leaders say the road to sainthood is marred because Stein was killed solely for being a Jew, like 6 million others. They cite her decision to flee Germany for the Netherlands, where she was captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz.

Some Jews have suggested the canonization is being used by the church to rehabilitate its wartime reputation, when its teachings that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus fomented anti-Semitism.”Why canonize her as a victim when she was taken because she was Jewish?”asked Rabbi Leon Klenicki, interfaith affairs director at the Anti-Defamation League in New York.”It’s a way of diminishing the pain, our pain of the Holocaust, and also trying to sort of disguise Christian guilt for the Holocaust.” But Norbert Greinacher, a German Catholic theologian, said that because it is undeniable that Sister Benedicta was born a Jew, the canonization could further heal Catholic-Jewish ties.”A canonization of a Jewish woman who was burned in Auschwitz would be a sign of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics,”he said.”Jesus was a Jew and all the apostles were Jews. We pray to them.” Catholic martyrs, according to modern church doctrine, are anointed saints if a miracle can be credited to them. The status allows Catholics to pray to saints for their intercession with God. Saints are assigned feast days, and churches and shrines may be dedicated to them.

Benedicta’s”miracle,”known as an unusual presence and power of God, occurred the same year she was beatified.

A two-and-a-half year old Boston child named after Benedicta accidentally overdosed on Tylenol while in the care of her older siblings. She fell into a coma and was taken to the hospital, where doctors determined she would need a new liver to survive.

Benedicta McCarthy’s mother prayed day and night for Sister Benedicta’s intercession. Gradually the toddler’s health improved and after five days and no liver transplant, she fully recovered.

Last month, the Vatican office charged with evaluating the claims of miracles said Benedicta McCarthy was successfully delivered by those prayers and the recovery was nothing less than a miracle.”I think this child was very close to death and she recovered, so I’m more than willing to say her turnaround was miraculous,”said Dr. Ronald Kleinman, a pediatrician who treated the girl at Massachusetts General Hospital and later recounted the episode to Vatican officials.

Kleinman added, however,”I think that medical science played a fair role here in keeping her alive.”The girl had been placed on a respirator and given medicine to maintain her blood pressure.”I think we deserve some credit,”he laughed, but said he wasn’t looking for any special Catholic citation.

Jewish leaders say they do not begrudge Benedicta’s achievements as a Catholic educator and philosopher, nor the Vatican’s decision to canonize a woman for whom a miracle can be demonstrated.

But they say the church is playing with historical fire by having deemed Stein a Catholic martyr, on which her sainthood has been made possible.”I don’t think it’s the business of the Jewish community to tell the Holy See who should be canonized, beatified or whatever,”said David Rosen of the Anti-Defamation League in Jerusalem. But he called the Vatican’s citation of Stein as a Catholic martyr”a little disingenuous.” The Israeli government, too, has weighed in, expressing dismay that the Catholic Church insists on elevating a person who clearly died not for her Catholic beliefs but her Jewish ancestry.”According to our belief and history she was sent to Auschwitz and killed there because she was a Jew and not for any other reason,”said Boaz Modai of the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See.”We’ve expressed our views to our friends at the Vatican and left it at that,”he said.”But we decided that this is not an issue over which we will make a crusade about.” But even defenders of the decision to canonize Benedicta suspect something more sinister than Catholic reverence may be at work in the decision.”I’m sure there are those in the Vatican who want to show that the church, too, suffered during the war,”said the historian Greinacher, adding such a motive would have been”preposterous.” The church has come under steady criticism for contributing to the dark atmosphere in Europe during the war years for its teaching of contempt toward Jews by ceasing to refuse blaming Jews for the death of Jesus.”There are very right-wing people who want to show the innocence of the church”with the canonization of Stein, Klenicki said.”I don’t think the church is guilty of the Holocaust but they prepared the atmosphere by the teaching of contempt. This is what has to be dealt with.” The Vatican is sponsoring a seminar this fall on its teachings and their effects during the war years. Klenicki said that judging from the Stein affair, the church is far from united on its place in history during the war years.

MJP END HEILBRONNER