Catholic History of Antisemitism

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I just wanted to open up a thread for the topic conversation on the history of Antisemitism in the Catholic Church. This is a topic I really just started to discover. I am most interested with Antisemitism in recent Church history and the allegations towards the Church on remaining “silent” during the holocaust. I know there are a lot of Anti-Catholics out there and that information can be twisted. However, I am interested in what accusations towards Catholic Antisemitism have a sound basis. I have read a lot from JPII looking for apologies to past, specific Antisemitic events and/or tendencies from the Catholic Church and have not found much to satisfy.

So to break it down:
  1. Is the criticism towards the Church for its actions (or non-actions) during the holocaust with basis and valid?
  2. How valid is a time line such as this sullivan-county.com/news/mine/timeline.htm on Catholic Antisemitism? (I know its long and this is really broad but feel free to pick out specifics if you like)
  3. Has the Catholic Church ever issued a satisfactory apology for past wrongs done towards the Jewish people/faith BY the Catholic Church?
Side note: I am also interested in and unbiased explanation or study on this topic…

1555-1559- Pope Paul IV restricts Jews to ghettos and decrees that they are to wear distinctive headgear

And a disclaimer: I love the Catholic Faith.
 
dcs6f4 said:
I just wanted to open up a thread for the topic conversation on the history of Antisemitism in the Catholic Church. This is a topic I really just started to discover. I am most interested with Antisemitism in recent Church history and the allegations towards the Church on remaining “silent” during the holocaust. I know there are a lot of Anti-Catholics out there and that information can be twisted. However, I am interested in what accusations towards Catholic Antisemitism have a sound basis. I have read a lot from JPII looking for apologies to past, specific Antisemitic events and/or tendencies from the Catholic Church and have not found much to satisfy.

So to break it down:
  1. Is the criticism towards the Church for its actions (or non-actions) during the holocaust with basis and valid?
  2. How valid is a time line such as this sullivan-county.com/news/mine/timeline.htm on Catholic Antisemitism? (I know its long and this is really broad but feel free to pick out specifics if you like)
  3. Has the Catholic Church ever issued a satisfactory apology for past wrongs done towards the Jewish people/faith BY the Catholic Church?
Side note: I am also interested in and unbiased explanation or study on this topic…

1555-1559- Pope Paul IV restricts Jews to ghettos and decrees that they are to wear distinctive headgear

And a disclaimer: I love the Catholic Faith.
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On Anti-Semitism
by Father Denis Fahey, C.S.S.p., B.A., D. Ph.D, D.D.
On account of the confusion of mind prevalent among Catholics concerning the question of Anti-Semitism, a few words must be said about it.
In the excellent review of my book The Kingship of Christ or Organized Naturalism which appeared in the Jesuit magazine, La Civilta Cattolica (Rome, March, 1947), the reviewer laid special stress on the distinction which I have been making in all my books. He wrote as follows:
 
The Catholic Church remain silent durning the Holocaust because when Catholic priest and bishops spoke out, it often did more harm than good. By remaining silent, the Church was able to save many Jews.
 
Fr. Denis Fahey:
For the Jews, “Anti-Semitism” is anything that is in opposition to the naturalistic Messianic domination of their nation over all the others.
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Irish Polock, I don’t understand why you posted this. It appears to be an example of Catholic anti-Semitism. But how does it help the discussion?
 
Anti-Semitism is a great stick for anti-catholics to beat the church with. On casual examination, the situation looks bad for us. But look closer.

The nasty trick currently being played against christianity as a whole and catholicism in particular these days is to lay the whole gamut of human sinfullness committed by christians and say “It’s your faith that made you do this.”

That’s the great lie. The TRUTH is that it is the very sinfulness of humanity that causes them (catholic or not) to commit sins. The critics attempt to construct a christian claim that christianity should result in its believers being impeccable. But nobody with authority EVER claimed that in christian history.

The reality is that HUMANS (other than Jews themselves, of course) tend to be anti-semitic and it happens to show itself in catholics from time to time too. How do I know this? By looking at OTHER cultures that have lived for centuries alongside Judaism. Certainly everybody should realize that Islam has at least its fair share of those who hate Jews. Why do all of Judaism’s neighbors seem to develop negative attitudes towards them? Jealousy. If the Jews really ARE God’s chosen people (and they are), don’t you think that has effects?. Perhaps they, as a culture, DO tend towards excellence, responsibility, learning, achievement, taking care of their own. Those GOOD characteristics breed resentment among other cultures. What made it worse was the unintended consequence of a church policy meant to be conciliatory towards jews centuries ago. Back when money had a steady value over time (no inflation), catholicism prohibited the charging of interest on loans. But because this prohibition was deemed a christian principle, Jews alone were allowed to lend money and charge interest. Nobody else was interested in loaning at NO interest, so they became the banking class. Add in their innate cultural tendency towards excellence and it becomes pretty clear where the resentment came from. Jealousy, plain and simple.

Did that invade the minds of catholics in history? Of course. They were all fallen humans. Does that excuse it? NO, our fallenness is why we needed a Savior in the first place!

So how does this relate to the Holocaust? Simple! The low level of hostility against Judaism that for centuries lead to relatively minor injustices (like those cited above) against Jews was RESTRAINED by the positive cultural influence of christianity (and to a lesser extent, that those positive elements present in Islam). But practically the moment christianity was overthrown and a pagan worldview came to power (Nazis) or even a purely secular one (Soviet communism), that restraint fell away and in both cases the full evil of human fallenness was made manifest against the Jews (killed by the millions in both cases).
 
During the holocost, thousands of jews were isued fake baptismal certificates by the vatican in order to save them, and thousands more were hiden in monistaries and such to be saved…
and im pretty sure pope Pius the XII wrote an ensiclical against hitler befor the holocost
 
Think of the Church’s being quiet in the time of WWII this way:
The Vatican is located in Italy, the area ruled by Mussolini, a member of the Axis powers.

If you were in the middle of an area that was on the wrong side of the tracks, would you loudly speak out against them and kill yourself and those you love, or quietly go underground, funding some effort behind the scenes?

Furthermore, among the millions of deaths, there were many Catholics, including priests. St. Maximilian Kolbe was one of them. Let’s put it this way: in Auschwitz alone, there were 3,000 Polish priests of the Roman Catholic faith who were killed. That’s not mentioning those who weren’t priests, and/or weren’t Polish, and/or weren’t in Auschwitz.

In fact, the day after Italy signed the treaty with the Allies after killing Mussolini, Pope Pius XII wrote a letter to the rest of the bishops, instructing them to go under ground, because he was certain that he would be arrested by Hitler. In fact, Hitler hated the Pope, and did order his capture. However, the man he ordered to do so talked him out of it.

From an article released in May catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000534.shtml
According to leading Jewish and Catholic historians, the Nazis particularly despised Pius XII because he had shown himself to be repeatedly and openly hostile to their ideology as Vatican Secretary of State in the 1930s.
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Joseph Goebbel’s diary shows that Hitler was so furious at the election of the “pro-Jewish” Pope on March 2 1939 that he considered abrogating the 1933 concordat with the Vatican.
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Pius further angered the Nazis with his Christmas message of 1942 in which he denounced the unspeakable horror of “the hundreds of thousands who … solely because of their nation or race have been condemned to death or progressive extinction”.
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Furthermore, the Concordat of 1933 was made to save lives. At the time, the majority of the Western world was Roman Catholic, and in order to save lives, the Vatican made it’s treaty with the German Reich. No one at that time wanted to anger Hitler.

Also, many always mention the Church staying quiet about the Holocaust. However, no one ever mentions the fact that FDR and Churchill also never mentioned the Holocaust. People only found out after the fact. NO ONE did ANYTHING to stop it. You can’t lay all the blame on the Vatican.
 
manualman,

Thanks for your insight and taking the time to help me out with this issue.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. The Catholic Church and its members, while expected to sometimes by its “opponents,” never claim that Christianity produces impeccability. The Church’s members will always fall victim to sin from time to time. Like you said we are still human and still desperately in need of a Savior.

However, you also mentioned that there is no excuse for sin and I agree. Part of reconciliation and forgiveness is to acknowledge and ask forgiveness from those you have wronged.

So the heart of my question is if you look at that link I first posted there are a lot of claims of anti-semitism in the Church’s past. In my past efforts and part of my effort here, is to find if the Church, as a whole, has ever apologized for any specific issue. I have read many things where the Church sympathizes with those who have been wronged such as the Jewish people and acknowledges that wrongs have been done to certain groups, however, what I am really looking for is has the Catholic Church ever specifically owned up to, and apologized for any type of anti-Semitism?

I believe a main point of the Jubilee year was to ask forgiveness for the wrongs the church has done in the past and to renew itself for the new millennium. I believe this has been achieved in a very real way. However, I am unable to find much on anti-Semitism… So either I am missing something, or the Church does not feel it needs to apologize, or most the claims of anti-semitism lack a firm basis and have been twisted to look like strong blame is put on the Church.

Thanks again for your answer and any further insight would be much appreciated.
 
MoonChild02,

Thanks for the reply. So the Church’s resistance to the holocaust was an “underground” one? I have heard things like this before and I know the Church is directly responsible for saving many lives during the holocaust.

If I am understanding you correctly, you feel that history shows that an “underground resistance” was the best way the Church could have combatted the holocaust? I remember watching a movie at school when I was in grade school. It highlighted the particular “fix” that the Vatican was in. This was a long time ago and what I remember most vividly was that a line was drawn around the borders of Vatican City. German troops patrolled the border staying in Rome and monitoring what was going in and out of the Vatican borders. It seems the Vatican was walking the fine line of not giving the Germans any reason, politically, to invade the Vatican. This had several positive results, which outweighed the negative result of not speaking out directly against the Nazi party.

Does this film sound familiar? Or at least is the situation accurate?

I struggle with the question at times… wouldn’t it have been better for the Church to speak up? We speak out on abortion and contraception (and rightfully so), and we did so with post WWII, Cold War Communism, but why not with Nazism? I don’t doubt the Church made prudent decisions, but I am curious (not skeptical) of the reasoning behind them.

Thanks again!
 
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe JPII made an “apology” for past anti-semitic actions during the Jubilee year.

Bear in mind that if the Pope had spoken out against Hitler, he very likely would have been captured and killed, or sent to auschwitz. That would have provoked a crisis in the church due to inability for enough Cardinals to be present to vote for a new Pope (if he died). Can you imagine the crisis if he had been imprisoned? Hitler is responsible for the deaths of many many catholics along with 6M jews.

After studying this, I have come to conclusion that the Pope did the best he could under the circumstances during WWII.
 
dcs,

Was the film “The Scarlet and the Black?” I’ve heard good things and, in fact, it is currently on my Netflix que!

Again, the key here is to avoid judging with 20/20 hindsight. At the time, nobody outside the Axis powers knew about the gas chambers. It WAS known that Jews were being rounded up and put in concentration camps, deprived of their homes, possessions, etc. Yes, that is a terrible injustice but recall that at the time, the USA was ALSO rounding up US citizens and putting them in concentration camps due soley to their race (Japanese). Concentration camps did not, at the time, evoke the assumption of genocide that they do today.

An interesting anecdote I read once is about the chief Rabbi of Rome during WWII. Through the efforts of the Vatican, he was one of those saved from the Nazis. During that time, through the close contact he had with many inside the Vatican, he eventually converted to catholicism after the war. IMO, that’s a pretty inconvenient fact for the critics who try to say that the Catholic Church was “complicit through silence” with the Nazis.
 
manualman said:
Was the film “The Scarlet and the Black?” I’ve heard good things and, in fact, it is currently on my Netflix que!.
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I am pretty sure that’s it! I will watch it later tonight and let you know since its on instant queue. Thanks so much! Hopefully, it will not only be informative but nostalgic as well… Back to the Catholic grade school days when I thought everyone knew all Christians were essentially the same by virtue of being united through love of Christ… and no one told me all the things I hold closest to my heart were untrue and sending me straight to hell : ). Ecumenism can be a daily struggle, but a saintly joy!

Thanks again, I agree that our hindsight is often misleading and under-appreciated. It seems that at the very best genocide must have been seen as a rumor, hunh?
 
JanetF said:
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe JPII made an “apology” for past anti-semitic actions during the Jubilee year.

Bear in mind that if the Pope had spoken out against Hitler, he very likely would have been captured and killed, or sent to auschwitz. That would have provoked a crisis in the church due to inability for enough Cardinals to be present to vote for a new Pope (if he died). Can you imagine the crisis if he had been imprisoned? Hitler is responsible for the deaths of many many catholics along with 6M jews.

After studying this, I have come to conclusion that the Pope did the best he could under the circumstances during WWII.
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I have came across a document titled “WE REMEMBER:
A REFLECTION ON THE SHOAH.”

Is this what you are referring to?

You can read it on the Vatican’s website:

vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_16031998_shoah_en.html

“As we prepare for the beginning of the Third Millennium of Christianity, the Church is aware that the joy of a Jubilee is above all the joy that is based on the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God and neighbour. Therefore she encourages her sons and daughters to purify their hearts, through repentance of past errors and infidelities. She calls them to place themselves humbly before the Lord and examine themselves on the responsibility which they too have for the evils of our time.” (From the Introduction)

This is the general spirit of the letter. It is a very beautiful expression of humility and recognition of the fact that anti-Semitism has existed and may still exist in the Church. As you can see in the above quote forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God and neighbor is encouraged through repentance of past errors and infidelities.

This is the closest I have come to finding an outright apology. I think this is very close to and may be just what I am looking for. However, part of me wonders if more of an outright, straightforward apology is needed? The spirit of the Jubilee year and the clear declaration against all past and any present or future kind of anti-Semitism… seems to me like it has the potential of being sufficient. To me, it is VERY important that reconciliation is in this letter is ordered first towards God whom our sin chiefly offends and also towards neighbor. But on the other hand this letter was written interiorly (to the faithful) and not exteriorly (to the world). It was a mode of instruction for the Church, it seems, on how to conduct oneself in the spirit of the Jubilee year regarding past and present Jewish-Christian relations.

I am closing in on an answer here and it may be that the Jubilee year was a much, much more significant event in history than I have previously understood. What I am wondering is how well was the meaning of the Jubilee year understood by Christians and the world? Did we not only as Catholics, but the whole of humanity take advantage of the spirit of the year 2000?

In addition to that… clearly its not too late. The fact that JPII used the year 2000, the start of a new millennium to introduce the concept of the Jubilee year it also make a profound mark on the millennium itself! So it seems to me that it is not too late as Catholics, and I may go as far as saying it is our duty to rediscover the spirit and teachings of the Jubilee year. I am certain that JPII will go down as one of the greatest Saints in the history of the Church. The Jubilee year on top of the definitive culmination of all teachings on the Theology of the Body alone is enough to blow one’s mind (not to mention everything else he did). Sorry… Catholicism gets me pumped up sometimes.

Have there been any quality books written specifically on the topic of the Jubilee year?
 
Dale_M said:
Irish Polock, I don’t understand why you posted this. It appears to be an example of Catholic anti-Semitism. But how does it help the discussion?
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Dale_M Anti-Semitism is an ambiguous phrase; could you give me your own personal definition?

Dr. R. Sungenis has written a Q&A more or less about Anti-Semitism that can explain the historic Catholic position better then I could articulate.

I agree with Dr. Sungenis, Philosemitism is running rampant in the world today. I don’t hate the Jewish faith- in fact I don’t look at them any differently then I would the Protestants… But if I say “The Jews need to accept Christ as our Mother Church teaches, least their souls will be lost” I am labeled with being an Anti-Semite, but if I say the same of the Protestants or Muslims I am just ignorant of scripture…I don’t hate any of them, I am just trying to show them the Truth of Christ.
 
Irish_Polock said:
Dale_M Anti-Semitism is an ambiguous phrase; could you give me your own personal definition?
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I can’t say that I have a personal definition. Nonetheless, the quote you cited claimed that Jews wanted to dominate the world. I think that is blatantly false, and yes, anti-Semitic
Irish_Polock said:
Dr. R. Sungenis has written a Q&A more or less about Anti-Semitism that can explain the historic Catholic position better then I could articulate.
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Whoa. Is this the same R. Sungenis who defends the geocentric theory of the universe? That the Earth is the center of the solar system, that the Sun revolves around the Earth?

Please read it and we can discus your thoughts about it. I remain open minded in this matter.
erm… no thank you. The earlier quotation you made from the website was clearly anti-Semitic. And this Sungenis fellow doesn’t think the earth revolves around the sun. He doesn’t seem very reputable.

I am quite willing to discuss with you, your ideas, in this forum. If you would like explain yourself, I am more than willing to listen.
 
dcs6f4 said:
How valid is a time line such as this sullivan-county.com/news/mine/timeline.htm on Catholic Antisemitism? (I know its long and this is really broad but feel free to pick out specifics if you like)
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I don’t know how valid this compilation of events were, but I think it’s about time that we start mending our difference with our Jewish brothers, pray for them and be more supportive in their fight on modern antisemitism and the invalidation of their long history of hard ordeals and suffering.

They were going about this antisemitism thing ever since time immemorial. Let’s give them a break. They have the right to exist.
 
Irish_Polock said:
Dale_M Anti-Semitism is an ambiguous phrase; could you give me your own personal definition?

Dr. R. Sungenis has written a Q&A more or less about Anti-Semitism that can explain the historic Catholic position better then I could articulate.

Please read it and we can discus your thoughts about it. I remain open minded in this matter. There are as many Jews in my family as there are Catholics. (From the Minsk area)

I agree with Dr. Sungenis, Philosemitism is running rampant in the world today. I don’t hate the Jewish faith- in fact I don’t look at them any differently then I would the Protestants… But if I say “The Jews need to accept Christ as our Mother Church teaches, least their souls will be lost” I am labeled with being an Anti-Semite, but if I say the same of the Protestants or Muslims I am just ignorant of scripture…I don’t hate any of them, I am just trying to show them the Truth of Christ.
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Oh I wouldn’t stop at Fahey and Sungenis you also have Feeney and Coughlin and Belloc and Williamson and by your posts also yourself.The belief that Jews and Judaism are this special destructive anti-Christian entity was the driving force for Papal edicts putting Jews in ghettos and forcing them to wear special clothing marking them as Jews and restricting any interaction by gentiles with Jews. Luckily’ after Vatican II Fahey and his kind doesn’t represent the Catholic position - he does however represent the SSPX position.
 
chosen_people said:
Oh I wouldn’t stop at Fahey and Sungenis you also have Feeney and Coughlin and Belloc and Williamson and by your posts also yourself.The belief that Jews and Judaism are this special destructive anti-Christian entity was the driving force for Papal edicts putting Jews in ghettos and forcing them to wear special clothing marking them as Jews and restricting any interaction by gentiles with Jews. Luckily’ after Vatican II Fahey and his kind doesn’t represent the Catholic position - he does however represent the SSPX position.
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What is the official- historic Catholic position on evangelizing the Jewish people with the Truth of Christ?
 
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