A courageous Christian statement

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A courageous Christian statement
Fri., April 28, 2006 Nisan 30, 5766


Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa's lecture at an academic conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday raised many expectations among the organizers. Pizzaballa, who bears the title Custos of the Holy Land - keeper of the holy sites - is the first senior church figure to agree to address an Israeli conference on the Church and the Holocaust in an official capacity.

Pizzaballa did not disappoint those who expected to hear strong, straightforward statements. He said the Church had failed to shape the conscience of believers because so few of them chose to object to the Nazi atrocities against the Jews. He expressed remorse for what he called "the failure of large parts of Christian tradition" to deal with the image of the Jews and Judaism. This failure, he said, prepared the ground for modern anti-Semitism.


The novelty in his address was not reflected only in the focused and unequivocal way in which the statements were made, but also in the implied but unprecedented criticism he directed against "leaders in the Church, including senior ones, who did not confront the Nazi regime courageously and in the evangelical spirit."

In 1963, Rolf Hochhuth published "The Deputy," a hard-hitting, controversial play charging that Pope Pius XII had known about the Nazi extermination of the Jews, but remained silent. The play triggered off a broad public debate, which has strengthened in recent years due to the process to beatify Pius XII.


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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/710461.html

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