David I. Kertzer

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Right, so I was looking for the backstory to the pagan holidays pre-ceeding Christmas, and stumbled across this. site. It’s all pretty good, until you come to the “How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25”? section, where in sub-section G you will find the following claim…
Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”
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My question is can this, or any of the other claims on this site be verified with historical accuracy. Thank you!
 
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Teen_Catholic:
Right, so I was looking for the backstory to the pagan holidays pre-ceeding Christmas, and stumbled across this. site. It’s all pretty good, until you come to the “How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25”? section, where in sub-section G you will find the following claim…

My question is can this, or any of the other claims on this site be verified with historical accuracy. Thank you!
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The obvious answer seems to be to see: David I. Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001, p. 74., as indicated by the footnote. Wish I could help.​

 
Kertzer is another one of those anti-catholic writers who likes to blame the Church for the holocaust. People shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses.
 
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bones_IV:
Kertzer is another one of those anti-catholic writers who likes to blame the Church for the holocaust. People shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses.
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I agree with you.
 
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bones_IV:
People shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses.
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Pardon me for being ignorant, but what does that saying mean?

In Christ.

Andre.
 
Perhaps if you think of the famous saying, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, it will be clear.
 
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Teen_Catholic:
My question is can this, or any of the other claims on this site be verified with historical accuracy. QUOTE]
I don’t know for sure, but it is an illustration of the past bad relationship between Catholics and Jews. There is no doubt that there was a bad relationship in the past. However, at the present time, relations between Catholics and Jews are getting better. The root problem is that at its core, Judaism and Catholicism have irreconcilable incompatibilities, even though we do have many things in common.
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I was looking at the footnotes, found David I. Kertzer’s site, and saw most of his books. I sensed a them. I had at the very least heard of the rocky realationship between the Jewish and the Catholic, which made his statements all the more plausable.

I have no doughts Catholic’s have wronged the Jewish, but this seemed a bit… extreme. Well thank you for all your help
 
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thistle:
I agree with you.
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There was this one article in Newsweek that ran a hatchet job John Paul II once it was about 23 pgs long, maybe it was the same author. All attacks like this by Kertzer and others is usually a vieled attack on Benedict XVI. The media called him a Nazi when he was elected, not directly of course.
 
While I don’t doubt that it sometimes happened, the Church did not approve of this practice, and as proof of this I present this letter by Bishop Annibale Ruccelai (died 1601)decreed in this bill:

BILL
That forbids anybody to harass or to annoy the Jews.

In order to put an end to the scandal and inconvenience caused by the trouble and the mockeries endured by the Jews every day, the most Illustrious and Reverend Annibale Rucellai, Bishop of Carcassonne, and of the Holy City of Rome and its district, Governor-General, and Vice-chamberlain, by the express wish of his Holiness the Pope, by means of this Bill orders, prohibits and commands that no person, of any rank or social position, may dare in any way to harass or cause hindrance of any kind, either direct or indirect, to any Jew, either male or female, boy or girl, nor mock them, touch them, nor give them offence, either with words or in fact, either during the day or at night-time, either openly or secretly, under the penalty for Christian men of three tugs of the rope, and for women and children of the lash, and to the additional punishment they would be given if they had offended a Christian, and declares that the masters will be held responsible for their servants, the fathers for their children, the teachers for their students, and the sentence will be strictly carried out, and the most Reverend Governor reserves the right of increasing or reducing the sanction, according to the seriousness of the offence and the persons involved, and everybody beware not to disobey.

How is that for a Catholic approving of taunting the Jews?
 
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