How to confront Catholic antisemitism?

[Polak]

Yes.

Right so since you have heard of S447, do you understand it talks about seizing property in Poland that used to belong to Jews, but is now heirless? Basically Jewish organisations want the right to certain properties in Poland, or at least compensation for them, because they used to be owned by Jews. This isn’t shocking to you? There is no country in the world where there is law allowing this. If property or items have no rightful heirs, it becomes the property of the state. Can you imagine an American organisation going to, let’s say Canada, and saying, ‘this house used to be owned by Americans, but they died and there are is no family left to receive it, so because we’re an American organisation and they were Americans, you need to transfer the property to us’.

 

[Rau]

As Catholics, we should be open to seeing the flaws in our own community instead of immediately getting defensive.

I gave an opinion on what had produced the defensiveness - a concern that a claim
of an over representation of the problem in Catholic communities was being made. I don’t think Grace intended to imply that at all, but were that the claim, you’d expect push back, wouldn’t you?

It ought to be possible to discuss the topic of anti-semitism in catholic circles - where it’s prevalence probably matches the rest of the community - without so much drama.

 

[twoshoes]

Haters love to hate. Jesus, Mary the disciples were all Jews. Jesus taught love your neighbor, how can any Catholic or Protestant hate Jews and still say they follow the teachings of Jesus our Savior.?

 

[tafan2]

Perhaps a level of reset is due on this conversation. In order to address the OP question: "How to confront Catholic antisemitism, we need to define/categorize the term. Granter, the noun itself is often disputed, but we should focus on the adjective with regards to the definition:

1. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed by any person who is Catholic
2. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed on Catholic media sites, but not limited to journalists. This would include social media and CAF.
3. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed by Catholic lay or religious groups
4. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed by the Church hierarchy.

Which of the above is the problem? And then we can address what to do about it.

 

[JoeShlabotnik]

Well said!!! Fake Christians hate Jews.

 

[EndTimes]

ARTICLE: Anti-semitism is “fringe position for many Catholics”

Cites names (Taylor Marshall, Patrick Coffin) but gives zero quotes for them , so it’s just a drive by piece.

Then it does the anonymous quoting of some tweets with anonymous screenames

Exactly! And against Catholics … Nothing new there …

 

[Zach]

A thread about Catholics’ bigotry towards others isn’t closed down yet a recent thread where someone asked for advice dealing with anti-Catholic people was closed within an hour with about 10 posts. Unless I missed something and it was reopened. I’m not calling for this to be closed, more questioning why the other one was closed. If threads about bigotted Catholics are ok why not threads about bigotry towards Catholics?

 

[EndTimes]

If threads about bigotted Catholics are ok why not threads about bigotry towards Catholics?

Maybe because
Threads about bigotry toward Catholics aka AntiChristianity

• might not receive wide-open arms?

 

[tafan2]

Could you kindly post a link to that thread? I did a search but did not find it. Thanks

 

[goout]

Satan loves to stir the pot.
Here we have a discussion thread about vague accusations from anonymous sources. Sometimes the most prudent response to evil is silence, because the evil needs our tail-chasing comments to give it credibility.
Anonymous and vague accusations have no credibility of their own, they need the anxiety and hand wringing of Catholic people to lend them credibility.

When you experience this kind of thing in real life, simply address it in the best way possible. Don’t help inflame it.

 

[EndTimes]

Here we have a discussion thread about vague accusations from anonymous sources.

Exactly. Catholic AntiSemitism is tossed out …

w/o the required supportive evidences which Catholics would demand to be shown…

 

[gracepoole]

I started this thread but given it has less than 24 hours of life left, I’m out. Thank you to all who actually answered my question and didn’t immediately become defensive when told some Catholics can be bigots. As a faithful Catholic, I believe rooting out anything that’s anti-Christ among our own is imperative. Thank you to all those who read my comments with the requisite Christian charity. Thank you to those who offered genuine and thoughtful answers here.

 

[OneSheep]

Tolle_Lege:

What exactly do you think we need to do about it?

That was the question I posed to everyone here. ??

First of all, thank you very much for creating this thread. I do believe that there is a rise in antisemitism, which is not to be confused with being pro-BDS or being against Israeli confiscation of land, etc.

What you are doing in creating this thread is a great way to start doing something about antisemitism, and all racism for that matter. People can become antisemitic by influence of their parents or “ingroup”, but these “taught” prejudices go away when the “student” of such prejudice meets and interacts with the people they are prejudiced against. The person can learn that all people are loving and beautiful, regardless of race or creed.

The other way that antisemitism develops is when people have a grievance against some specific Jewish people. The grievance itself can be quite valid, but the deduction that the bad behavior of a few is to be transferred on the race or religion as a whole is inaccurate and dangerous, of course.

For Christians, we are called to forgive those who we have a grievance against. The answer to the question, Grace, is forgiveness and reconciliation. If we have grievances against anyone, we are called to forgive. Then, if we do take steps to work against injustice (in America, Israel, or elsewhere) we do so with hearts that care for all people involved.

I’d like to call @Theo520 to this post, and this discussion.

Our local Jewish Federation has been targeted twice in the past two years by antisemites – threats of violence and antisemitic graffiti. A local Jewish cemetery was attacked and gravestones desecrated. When my institution hosted an expert on Holocaust denial, a local denier threatened her and the campus.

This is worth repeating, so I’m quoting it here. Thanks for giving us this awareness.

 

[TMC]

1. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed by any person who is Catholic
2. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed on Catholic media sites, but not limited to journalists. This would include social media and CAF.
3. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed by Catholic lay or religious groups
4. Catholic antisemitism - antisemitism expressed by the Church hierarchy.

Which of the above is the problem? And then we can address what to do about it.

I think that 1-3 are real problems, to varying degrees. I don’t think 4 is a significant issue at least not that I see.

 

[Theo520]

I started this thread but given it has less than 24 hours of life left, I’m out. Thank you to all who actually answered my question and didn’t immediately become defensive when told some Catholics can be bigots. As a faithful Catholic, I believe rooting out anything that’s anti-Christ among our own is imperative. Thank you to all those who read my comments with the requisite Christian charity. Thank you to those who offered genuine and thoughtful answers here.

Yes, some Catholics are bigots, they will be with us like the poor.
However there is no evidence Catholic Antisemitism is increasing or problematic. The links you shared earlier indicated the increase was predominantly among liberals who are pro BDS / anti-Isreal. Maybe many of the are Catholics, I don’t know.

I repeat my first response, which is to confront antisemitism whenever you see it. I wouldn’t support a concerted program in my parish unless it was a response to an incident. Focusing on ‘love your neighbor’ tackles bigotry in all it’s forms.

 

[Zach]

I started this thread but given it has less than 24 hours of life left, I’m out.

What does “it has less than 24 hours of life left” mean? Thanks

 

[niceatheist]

It means the moderators are going to shut it down. There have been a few comments here that, to be as charitable as possible, seem very problematic.

 

[Zach]

I guess it’s subjective. I haven’t seen any of that.

 

[niceatheist]

I guess it’s subjective. I haven’t seen any of that.

Comments that attribute some special malice on the part of Jews, or some group of them (i.e. “Holocaust profiteers”) is a sure sign that this thread is doomed.

 

[Polak]

Will the thread close because the creator of the thread set a time limit on it or because mods decided it needs to close in fear of it getting out of hand?

@gracepoole it’s a shame you did not respond to my last points. I made quite a few of them. It would be interesting to have seen your replies to it.

Also, you indicate that people were not answering your actual question, but it’s difficult to answer a question when you believe it was created on a false premise.

I do wonder if you have similar concerns about other things (anti-Catholicism, anti-Christianity, racism, domestic violence against women etc.) or is it just anti-Semitism that seems to take your interest, and if so, is there any particular reason for that?

Comments that attribute some special malice on the part of Jews, or some group of them (i.e. “Holocaust profiteers”) is a sure sign that this thread is doomed.

Well it shouldn’t be. The comments on Holocaust profiteers (on my part) came about when @gracepoole mentioned how Norman Finkelstein appearing in a documentary basically made it less credible (even though she stated the documentary in general was interesting). He claims there has been an industry built around the Holocaust, and as far as I’m concerned (having read his book) he produced quite detailed evidence of it. This wasn’t general malice aimed at Jews, but a Jew pointing out that some Jews who run or are part of these big Jewish organisations, have tried to profit off the tragedy suffered by other Jews. I don’t see why this theory, that I believe has been backed up by a lot of evidence, should make this thread doomed. When the book was written it actually got quite a few positive reviews from mainstream media.