How to confront Catholic antisemitism?

[gracepoole]

I’ll be praying for you.

 

[niceatheist]

This thread is most definitely doomed.

Good day, sir.

 

[Zach]

Will the thread close because the creator of the thread set a time limit on it

That’s why I asked. Is this possible to do?

 

[Polak]

It’s convenient to be vague

That’s why I asked. Is this possible to do?

Not sure. I think it might be a decision taken by mods, but when creating a thread it might be an idea to see if this option is possible.

 

[Zach]

I wouldn’t like that option. It could cut off good conversations for no reason.

 

[goout]

For a charge like “Catholic anti-semitism” there ought to be specific sources not vague impressions based on tweets from anonymous sources.
Here’s my impression based on un-named sources: I see no trace of anti-semitism in any Catholic I know.
There are increased anti-semitic incidents in the news generally, but I see none of that tied to Catholics or the Catholic Church.

 

[Rau]

For a charge like “Catholic anti-semitism” there ought to be specific sources not vague impressions based on tweets from anonymous sources.

I must admit, unless there is an element of Catholic “institution” present in the anti Semitic incidents, it would likeLy have been better to simply refer to “antisemitism” rather than “Catholic antisemitism”. I’m not so sure our response to antisemitic behaviour by a Catholic individual is necessarily any different to our response to any other individual. And if the behaviour of concern was “antisemitism displayed by catholic organizations or groups”, then let’s have those groups identified.

I’m disappointed that Grace has not acknowledged any shortcoming in the way she formulated the thread or sought to re-express the issue in a manner which avoids implying there’s a peculiarly “Catholic” problem. It was not necessary for the thread to crash and burn as it has done.

 

[Polak]

Grace seems to have run away from the problem.

As already stated, her ‘evidence’ of Catholic anti-Semitism was posting tweets from a handful of twitter accounts. Hardly makes it a general Catholic issue, as you stated Rau. You will always find some people from any faith of background who post nasty things on twitter.

For some reason she wanted some serious mea culpas followed by a solution to how we terrible Catholics can improve, or at least improve other terrible Catholics. It isn’t what she got, so she got frustrated and then started calling people who disagreed with her, deniers of the problem.

Anyway, I’m not going keep going on about it if she doesn’t want to continue on checking the thread, but I agree Rau that there was no need to try and make this seem like a Catholic issue.

 

[Rau]

there was no need to try and make this seem like a Catholic issue.

I’m not suggesting that was Grace’s intention (I don’t know her intention), but many read her post(s) to be implying that.

 

[gracepoole]

Grace seems to have run away from the problem.

As already stated, her ‘evidence’ of Catholic anti-Semitism was posting tweets from a handful of twitter accounts. Hardly makes it a general Catholic issue, as you stated Rau. You will always find some people from any faith of background who post nasty things on twitter.

For some reason she wanted some serious mea culpas followed by a solution to how we terrible Catholics can improve, or at least improve other terrible Catholics. It isn’t what she got, so she got frustrated and then started calling people who disagreed with her, deniers of the problem.

Anyway, I’m not going keep going on about it if she doesn’t want to continue on checking the thread, but I agree Rau that there was no need to try and make this seem like a Catholic issue.

That you really believe this is an accurate description of what’s happened is bizarre. But you think as you wish.

 

[Pattylt]

I read her post so differently! To me, she was asking how Catholics should respond when or if they saw other Catholics being anti Semitic. I did not read her as stating it was a specific catholic problem nor that many Catholics are acting this way…just what should (plural) you do when it happens. The rise in anti Semitic behaviors is happening everywhere. Should Catholics be on the lookout for it? And what should they do?

Sorry, I just never read it as a condemnation of all or even many Catholics nor as stating that it higher amongst Catholics or specific to them. YMMV.

 

[Camehome4john6]

That was my take as well.
As far as the answer to the title question, I’m afraid it looks like we can’t confront it…because we can’t even manage a discussion about it.

 

[Convert3]

I’ve never understood hate. We, as Christians are called to love our neighbor. I guess some don’t get it and think if you love one you can’t love another. I don’t buy that.

 

[EndTimes]

However there is no evidence Catholic Antisemitism is increasing or problematic.

It’s a very serious allegation which makes one wonder why it’s been posted.

 

[EndTimes]

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.

I haven’t seen that… Where? From whom?

No one should ever paint Catholics, Jews with a broad brush -
as if one is speaking of an entire homogenous group of people…

There’s bad eggs within any and all ‘groups’

)

 

[gracepoole]

Theo520:

However there is no evidence Catholic Antisemitism is increasing or problematic.

It’s a very serious allegation which makes one wonder why it’s been posted.

It hasn’t.

See this:

How to confront Catholic antisemitism? Social Justice

I actually said there’s been an uptick globally in antisemitism and provided evidence, and I said I’ve noticed antisemitism among some Catholics and provided evidence.

And this:

How to confront Catholic antisemitism? Social Justice

You really haven’t been paying attention to the contents of this thread. I said there are antisemitic Catholics, antisemitism is on the rise globally, and as Catholics we must confront and denounce it.

 

[Autumn-Smoke]

We’re clearly dealing with a global upsurge in antisemitic speech and activity, and recently I’ve become aware of how prevalent antisemitism is among some Catholics on platforms like Twitter. To be frank, it’s horrifying. And I’m not talking here about people who are arguing about Israel or who seek the conversion of the world to Christ. I’m talking about people who claim that Jews are out to destroy Christianity, people who deny basic historical truths about the Holocaust, people who believe Jews control the World Bank, etc.

So my question is this: how can right thinking (as in properly formed thinking) Catholics respond to this? How can we confront and denounce it? What do you think would be most effective? Lay groups? Priests speaking out in homilies? Diocesan efforts? Individual responses to antisemitism when we see it? Something else entirely?

I personally do know a Catholic who is very Anti-Semitic and believes in all the dogma that antisemitism teaches. She has shown me a set of books by a Catholic Priest who backs all of these ideas up and these are the basics of her own beliefs. Such as how masonic belief was founded by a Jewish man and how Masonic conspiracies against the church come from a Jewish background because of this. (I can’t think of the name or the author of these books at the moment.)

I’m really needing to rush out the door, but I wanted to post at least something before this thread closes. So, how can we confront individual Catholics who truly believe all these things…The Jewish world banking system, etc. ?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I have seen and heard some very anti-semitic remarks by Catholics along the lines Autumn-Smoke and grace posted. I see and hear it more often from Catholics in certain areas of Europe, where it seems to be tied into nationalism. By contrast, the Catholics in USA who say or post these remarks seem to come from two groups: 1) the folks who are into far-right conspiracy theories and 2) the folks who just don’t have a filter on what insensitive things they might say/post about all kinds of different groups, including Jewish people, Muslims, welfare recipients, women, gay people, etc.

Regarding “how to confront” it, we confront it the same way we confront any kind of socially unacceptable behavior. Call it out, and if the person is identifying as a Catholic, tell them their behavior is hurtful and they’re not behaving in the way Christ calls us to act, not speaking in accordance with Church teaching, etc. A nice calm 2 sentences. Then disengage from the person and their ilk. If they’re associated with a parish group, I’d talk to the pastor and he can take steps like talking to the person, talking to the group, discussing it in his homily etc. If they’re somebody I personally know, like a relative or friend, I could talk to them one-on-one and try to get them to see the error of their ways. But if they’re just some random keyboard warrior on social media who you don’t know personally, then aside from calling them out once and using whatever mechanisms are available to flag a post, I don’t have much recourse, and I find it more mentally healthy to just say a prayer and disengage from those people the same way I disengage from any toxic person in life.

And of course, be supportive yourself to Jewish people (and Muslim people and other groups of people) around you when you see hate occurring. Answer evil with good. Set a good example.

 

[Annie]

Grace,

I think if you had started off by saying you had noticed an increase in anti-Semitic messages by Catholics on social media and asked what could be done about that, you would have been better off than by implying that there has been a huge upsurge that is “horrifying” (Post 1) and and should “be[…] talk[ed] about by ALL Catholics right now.” (Post 10).

The statistics you brought forth are stated in a way to make the problem of anti-Semitism in the general population seem much worse than it is.

For example, a 37% increase… highest levels since WW2…

The problem is that if we say there was .002% and a 37% increase, that would still only take us up to .00274%. And when that “surge” seems to be the result of one incident, however awful that incident may have been, it’s not really an indication of what is happening generally in society.

If we say that anti-Semitism was at 100% in Germany during WW2, not necessarily that all Germans were anti-Semitic but that the level in the country was at that point, then perhaps .00274% is indeed the highest level since WW2, but does not at all approach the level of WW2.

Is anti-Semitism a problem? Is it growing? Are an extremely small number of Catholics making more anti-Semitic comments on social media?

Yes.

Buy does this indicate a horrifying surge of anti-Semitism among Catholics that ALL Catholics should be talking about?

I have to admit I don’t think so.

I think a better argument might be that there is an uptick in specifically Catholic anti-Semitism, possibly shown by or encouraged by increased availability to the writings of a couple of anti-Semitic writers from the past and the inclusion of their ideas in the writings of an extremely small number of current Catholic authors, with a consequent question of what can or should be done?

I do not think current levels in the US indicate that another Holocaust is around the corner.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I do not think current levels in the US indicate that another Holocaust is around the corner.

While I generally agree with your statement, I would note that Jewish people who have parents and grands who lived through WWII were taught to watch very carefully for signs of anti-Semitism. Things that look like isolated incidents or small events to us, look ominous to them, especially if the government or the people don’t react strongly when the incident happens. They’re always looking to see if “it might be happening again”. I have seen this repeatedly. The synagogue shooting really crystallized a lot of the fears in Jewish people’s minds. I’m not a big activist and I don’t go running out to vigils for shootings or anything else as a general rule, but I went to the local vigil on the courthouse steps after that and posted pictures on my social media because I felt it was important to do so in that case.