What Edith Stein means to Christian and Jews everywhere

by Christopher Gaul in The [Baltimore] Catholic Review, September 17, 1998

To Sister Sue Houchins, O.C.D., a postulant at Baltimore's Carmelite Monastery, Edith Stein "represents a 20^th century woman, a Carmelite who made a wonderful mixture of being a woman of her time and a Carmelite in her soul."

Carmelites here and around the world are looking forward eagerly to Oct. 11, the day Pope John Paul II will declare Blessed Benedicta of the Cross (a.k.a. Edith Stein) a saint.

The Discalced Carmelite Sisters at the lovely Dulaney Valley monastery here have a special affinity for Edith Stein - philosopher, writer, educator and feminist - not only for her brilliant intellectual prowess, her ability to observe and describe in a philosophically grounded objectivity her Carmel-refined spirituality, but because they are keenly interested in the positive progression of Jewish-Christian relations.

Born into a Jewish family in Wroclaw, Poland, once a part of Germany ceded back to Poland at the end of World War II, Edith Stein left her parents' faith decisively when she was 15 and soon declared herself an atheist. But at age 30, five years after earning her doctorate in philosophy with highest honors, she converted to Catholicism and on Oct. 14, 1933, two days after her 42^nd birthday, entered the cloistered Mary Queen of Peace Carmel in Cologne, Germany.

To Cardinal William H. Keehler, another admirer, Edith Stein "must be reckoned a giant of the 20^th century. Brilliant, analytical, mystical, she was a deeply religious woman with political sensibilities."

So wrote the cardinal in his foreword to the latest issue of the ICS Carmelite Studies series which looks from a variety of perspectives - Jewish, Catholic and Protestant - at this remarkable woman, who together with her Catholic convert sister, Rosa, was murdered by the Nazis with Zyklon B poison gas on Aug. 9 or 10, 1942 at Auschwitz and buried in a mass grave.

Like the Baltimore Discalced Carmelites, Cardinal Keeler is deeply committed to the improvement of Jewish-Christian relations, and as episcopal moderator for Catholic-Jewish relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (USA), is extraordinarily active in this pursuit, and so it was fitting that he penned the foreword.

Edith Stein was, in a sense, both a Christian and a Jewish martyr. She was killed not only because of her Jewish origins in the monstrous time of the Holocaust, but because the Nazis in Holland, where Sister Benedicta had taken refuge in a Carmelite monastery, responded to the Dutch Catholic bishops' protest against earlier German action against Jews by rounding up Catholics of Jewish descent and sending them to concentration camps where most of them, like Edith and Rosa Stein, died.

Understandably, some Jews have very mixed feelings about Edith Stein, stirred at first when she was beatified by Pope John Paul in 1987, and intensified by the Holy Father's announced intention to raise her to sainthood.

"On the one hand I felt proud of this intellectual, spiritually-gifted woman," observed Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, a Reconstructionist rabbi with a doctoral degree in Jewish-Christian relations, writing in Carmelite Studies. "On the other, as someone seeking Jewish women role models, I felt abandoned and betrayed. Her baptism in particular - in an era of such extreme Jewish vulnerability - feels almost like an act of treachery."

Rabbi Fuchs-Kreimer admits to anger "when a Jew chooses not to continue to struggle with the civilization into which she was born" and feels "sad and cheated" that Edith Stein's profound work as a translator, philosopher, inspirational writer and spiritual director "enhance another tradition and not mine." Nevertheless, while she writes that Edith Stein can never be a role model for her as a Jewish woman, "she is still someone from whom I can learn." She can, after all, the rabbi observed, "be a teacher to us. Though she found her bread elsewhere, we can use some of her leaven in our own Jewish lives."

There is so much for all of us, Christians and Jews, to learn from this remarkable woman with, as Cardinal Keeler described it, her "attractive yet enigmatic personality."

And that is exactly where the Baltimore Carmelites come into the picture. Organized by Sister Sue, they have planned a series of compelling events in honor of Blessed Benedicta's canonization beginning on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. at the Baltimore monastery with a showing of the European produced video, "The Seventh Chamber of Edith Stein" followed by a historical presentation by Sister Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., who spent two years in Cologne researching the life and work of Edith Stein.

On Sunday, Oct. 11, the day of Blessed Benedicta's canonization, the Carmelite Sisters will hold a Mass in her honor to be celebrated by Father William J. Sneck, S.J., of Loyola College who has written with sensitivity and insight about Edith Stein.

On Friday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. (also at the monastery), the second Edith Stein Series will feature a lecture by former Baltimorean Dr. Marianne Sawicki (a College of Notre Dame graduate), who is a fellow at the Erasmus Historical Institute at the University of Notre Dame. It is entitled "Personal Connections: The Pre-Baptismal Philosophy of Edith Stein."

The next day, Saturday, Nov. 14, there will be an invitation-only advance[d] seminar on Edith Stein's early philosophy.

Sister Sue, who came to Carmel after a distinguished career in teaching critical theory, among other things, sees the Baltimore Carmel she has enthusiastically embraced at age 54 as developing a prayer life "in the setting that understands itself as an active part of the 20^th century" and so feels particularly close to the intellectually bold but deeply spiritual 20^th century Edith Stein who died only a couple of years before Sister Sue was born.

What better a way to honor this remarkable woman, a saint for our times, then by learning more about her and what she can teach us at the Carmelites' Edith Stein Series. If you would like more information, the Sisters will be glad to provide it. Call 410-823-7415.