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| Vol. 18, No. 12 | Nov. 19, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 12 | Nov. 19, 1998 |
When Leah Stein says her great-great-aunt is a saint she's speaking literally, even though Leah, herself, is Jewish. Her great-great-aunt is the Carmelite nun, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who, before her conversion to Catholicism, was raised Jewish and was known as Edith Stein.
Pope John Paul II's canonization of this woman, who died in the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, has raised controversy among Jews and Catholics alike.
"Within my family, this is something that every one of my relatives feels differently about," says Stein, who was one of the 97 relatives who attended the canonization ceremony Oct. 11 at the Vatican.
"Those of us who are Jewish feel very differently from the branch of the family that lives in Colombia, South America, and is Catholic. Among those of us who are Jewish, there also are differences. My grandfather, for example, grew up in the same house as Edith Stein and remembers the pain she caused her family. My father's generation grew up knowing how their parents felt, and then there's my generation that grew up much further removed from it all and in a world that is generally less religious than it used to be."
Personally, Stein said, "I feel that when she converted to Catholicism she made her choice. That's where she felt comfortable. Sainthood and miracles are not something I believe in, but if she can have an impact of the lives of Catholics and help make a difference in their lives, then--while it's not something I understand-I can support it."
Much of the debate surrounding Edith Stein's sainthood, comes from the question of whether she died a martyr for the Catholic Church or died because she was Jewish.
"As Jews, we don't understand how she could have died a martyr for her religion," Stein says. "My family also lost so many other relatives in the Holocaust that it's hard to understand why all this attention would be paid to Edith Stein. My grandparents escaped from Nazi Germany, and all of this has brought up a lot of pain within the family, remembering the ones who died."
Growing up, celebrating Shabat dinners every Friday night, Stein says she never knew that much about her great-great-aunt.
"I only knew as much about her as I did about my other relatives of that generation," she said, "although when I was growing up, priests and nuns came to our home (in Silver Spring, Md.) for dinner to learn more about how Jewish people live. Then, when all this started happening, within the last two years, I've learned a lot."
Stein traveled to Italy for the canonization with her grandmother, Ilse Stein, whose husband grew up with Edith Stein. There, they joined the rest of Leah's immediate family and other relatives from the U.S., Israel, Switzerland, Germany and Colombia.
The canonization itself took about two hours, Stein said, and family members sat on a platform behind the pope, outside of St. Peter's Cathedral. Jewish and Catholic family members were surrounded by nuns, friars, monks and Vatican officials. The platform overlooks Vatican Square, which was packed with thousands of people for the special occasion.
"No one can believe I was that close to the pope," Stein says, although she has photos to prove it. "I was struck by how frail he is, how people had to help him up and down."
The ceremony was presented in Latin, Italian, German and English, and Stein said she understood very little of what was said.
"The atmosphere was very holy, and even if you couldn't understand it all, you knew that it was very moving. My German relatives were crying during the sermon, which was in German," she says. Stein's mother clutched a rosary for a friend.
One of those to receive communion during the ceremony was Teresa Benedicta McCarthy of Brockton, Mass.
In 1987, when she was 2 years old, McCarthy, who had been named for Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, swallowed an overdose of Tylenol. Her liver stopped functioning and her family and friends prayed to her deceased namesake for healing. The next day, McCarthy was fine. The event, which was declared a miracle, is what enabled Stein to meet the qualifications to become a saint.
Seeing McCarthy, now 14, receive communion was very moving, Stein said.
Some family members also had a papal audience and the entire family sat near the pope again at a special concert held in Edith Stein's honor.
The McCarthy family joined the Steins for a dinner that evening held by the Archdiocese of Cologne. Throughout the event, both families were filmed for a documentary being made by an independent filmmaker.
"There was my whole family-all of Edith Stein's descendants-and the entire McCarthy family-the family of the little girl responsible for her becoming a saint. It was amazing. It was a great mixture of religions and beliefs, but we all got along, even though we all had very individual views of why we were attending the ceremony and what we wanted to get out of it.
"The whole trip was an incredible family reunion, but instead of trying to figure out how we were related to each other, we all kept asking each other how we were related to Edith Stein."
Being related to a saint hasn't really changed her life in any way, Stein says. "I think about her. I think about how so many people in life never really find their place and Edith did, in spite of the pain it caused her family."
As a family and community service major, Stein has, herself, done many good works. She says friends sometimes tease her about wanting to be the next Jewish saint.
While at UD, she has worked with infants and toddlers in a day-care setting, helped write the state's Grandparents Raising Grandchildren handbook, helped coordinate the annual Delaware Kids' Conference, conducted a needs assessment for low-income families and worked in the Early Head Start Program.
Next semester, she will have completed her academic requirements and will take part in the internship the major requires. She also plans to start applying to graduate schools.
-Beth Thomas
