No Joke: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Tells Pope To Use Friday Night Family Dinners To Defuse Sex Abuse Crisis

A rabbi walks into St. Peter's Square, meets the pope, and tells the Holy Father that one way to defuse the sex abuse scandal plaguing the church is for the Vatican to begin promoting a secular version of Shabbat dinner, the traditional Jewish Friday meal. It's no joke.

Rabbi's pitch to pope: Use family dinners to defuse abuse crisis
American rabbi Shmuley Boteach spoke to Pope Benedict XVI about dinner idea
Boteach calls his proposal "Turn Friday Night into Family Night"
Pope seemed receptive to idea, but made no firm commitments, Boteach said
By Dan Gilgoff • CNN

A rabbi walks into St. Peter's Square, meets the pope, and tells the Holy Father that one way to defuse the sex abuse scandal plaguing the church is for the Vatican to begin promoting a secular version of Shabbat dinner, the traditional Jewish Friday meal.

It's no joke.

A prominent American rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, spoke briefly to Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday about encouraging parents to eat dinner with their children as a way for the Vatican to re-establish its pro-family image, which has been battered by the priest sex abuse scandal, Boteach said.

The brief exchange came after the pope's regular Wednesday address at the Vatican, during which Boteach was seated on a dais along with other Vatican guests. When he met Benedict on a receiving line afterward, Boteach pitched him on his family dinner initiative, called "Turn Friday Night into Family Night."

"I said ... 'If the church embraces an initiative like this, which is positive, it could put a lot of the scandal behind it,'" Boteach said, recounting his chat with the pope. "People will see the church doesn't just speak about opposition to gay marriage and abortion.'"

The pope appeared to be receptive to the idea, Boteach said. " 'We have to work together on this, we have to work together on this,' " Boteach quoted the pope as saying. But, Benedict did not make a firm commitment to the family dinner initiative, the rabbi said.
The Vatican was not immediately available for comment.

"The church is now perceived as not being a champion of families because the scandal has hit with so much force," Boteach said. "I came (to the Vatican) as a friend and as someone who is critical as well. Because my criticism is real, the church knows my friendship is real."

Following his talk with the pope, Boteach said he was invited to meet with Cardinal Walter Kasper, who spearheads the Vatican's Jewish outreach, with whom Boteach fleshed out his criticism of the church's response to priestly sex abuse.

Boteach was invited to the Vatican to look over documents related to Pope Pius XII, the Holocaust-era church leader who Benedict has signaled he would like to move closer to sainthood.

The rabbi has been a spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson, who died last year, and a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey's talk show.

A number of recent Vatican actions have caused tensions between the church and the Jewish world. Last year, Benedict lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, Richard Williamson.

Earlier this month, the pope's personal preacher compared the fury over sexual abuse within the church to anti-Semitism, though the priest, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, later apologized.

But Boteach has been impressed by the Vatican's overtures to him and to other Jewish leaders. "I thinks he's a friend to the Jews -- a very close friend," Boteach said of the pope.

Boteach said that the Vatican had shown him documents from its private archive showing that Pius XII, a controversial figure among Jews, rescued Italian Jews during the Holocaust. But Boteach remains critical of Pius, saying he displayed "absolute silence in condemning the Nazi Holocaust outright, which might have gone to great lengths to prevent it."

The church has said that Pius would have put more Jews in danger by publicly condemning the Holocaust because it would have provoked the Nazis.

Comments

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

Since he can't be Michael Jackson's rabbi anymore, I guess he's trying to be Ratzinger's Rabbi. He doesn't realize that the Pope doesn't deal with freelancers, but only speaks to IJCIC (International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations)

[Bassy the Haredi Slayer]

The days are getting longer and I can go for happy hour on Friday after work and be home before bentsh licht. (sometimes I don't...)

[effie]

Nothing wrong with promoting family dinners. But the sex abuse thing...in my neck of the woods, the scandals peaked quite a few years ago and the worse seems to be over. It took a long time for people to do something about it. I would always read these stories where a kid was abused and the parents would go to the church expecting redress instead of going immediately to the police.

First you go to the police. Later, you go to the church with a baseball bat.

In the church's defense, often they were following the prevailing psychiatric and the criminal justice system beliefs which defied common sense and were proven to not work. For a long time people thought pedophiles could be cured and children were treated like crap. If the molester was taken out of the home or sent to prison, the child bore the brunt of the blame. It was and is disgusting.

[A. Nuran]

OotCR, the Pope already has a rabbi, the formidable Jacob Neusner. They get together and chat on a regular basis. Probably about football. But when they talk theological shop there probably isn't more than a handful of people on the planet who can keep up with the conversation.

Not that I'm a great fan of Mr. Ratzinger. But he is one of the sharper minds the Catholics have produced.

[A E ANDERSON]

I seem to remember that Roman Catholics have a tradition of partaking of a family meal... on Sunday after Mass. Why does Shmuely Boteach want to Judaize the Church by having them switch to Friday night?

What's next, maariv instead of vespers?

[Chicago Sam]

Shumuely--never misses the photo-op, whether with Michael Jackson, the Pope, or anyone else.

Maybe he should visit his friend, Rubashkin and offer some pointers and moral advice.

God made him for TV . . .

[phillip]

This man has NO SHAME.......
He did wonders with Micheal Jackson
and his values.

This clown has a radio show on WABC 770
here in NYC. He is on Sunday evening
for 2 hours.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

ב'אה חונן הדעת! י

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

A. Duran -
Noisner, now there's a character!

[R]

How come it hasn't worked for the haredi sexual abuse...maybe the charedim need to have a Sunday dinner.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

R
cool, i like your idea!
"maybe the charedim need to have a Sunday dinner."
i suspect though they can wiggle out of it on account of bitul theuyreh!

[soso]

Vus is der Galach vus sitzt leiben Rabbi Boteach?

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

soso

LOL

[Mr. Apikoros]

With the death of Michael Jackson, Shmuckley, who's "America's Rabbi" about as much as the Atlanta Braves are "America's Team," needs a new celebrity congregant who isn't Jewish, and I guess the Pope qualifies as much as anyone.

This hypocrite will never be MY rabbi.

"Ratzinger's Rabbi," LOL!

[SeptSpirit]

Boteach bankrupted the charity he formed with MJ before it was even publicly launched. MJ promptly kicked him to the curb. He could no longer use MJs celebrity to forward his stated agenda, "to make the world more Jewish" with his campaign for Fri nite dinners. Boteach also stated publicly that he was not MJs spiritual advisor, only a friend, and that he learned humility from MJ.

[SoCalGal]

Shmucky Lowleech is incorrigible. He's a thief and a liar and not one to be trusted with confidences. He's a traitor to his religion and to humanity. So he has dinner with his family on Friday nights. Big deal. The rest of the time he's violating people by spilling their heartfelt confidences all over the media. Shmucky Lowleech needs to go away. Permanently.

[Philip Sovitz]

Boteach is an attention seeking glory hound. Whatever it takes to stay in the public eye- he'll do it. It's disgusting how he tried to profit off of the private spoken confidences between himself and Michael Jackson. VERY shortly after Jackson's death, Boteach had a thick book ready for press and tapes of Jackson's private conversations broadcast over the public airwaves all around the world. This man is incorrigible, sneaky and detestable. No one should ever use him as their "spiritual advisor" unless they want their life story and private conversations broadcast all over the planet. Boteach is not to be trusted. And as the old saying goes-"with friends like these, who needs enemies?"

[Berel]

Great collection of posts about Shmuley on http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/

http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/2010/04/his-holiness-meets-his-shmuleyness.html

http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/2010/05/chutzpah-of-these-goyim-describing-our.html

http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/boteach-not-enough-space-between-eyes.html

http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_12.html

[FEIFALE AND ROIZALE- JERUSALEM]

boteach,is a money hungry specimen,on the phone even before stating your question,he will demand-$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.