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as well as the liturgical hope expressed in daily prayer and sustained in the High Holy Days and
Passover celebrations, symbolize the Jewish people’s relationship to the Promised Land.
The documents of the American and French bishops, however, pay special attention to the
centrality of the State of Israel in the existence of the Jewish people.
The Ever-Present Scourge of Anti-Semitism
Deeply concerned with the dangers and iniquities of racism and anti-Semitism, the Holy See’s
Pontifical Commission, “Justice and Peace,” on February 10, 1989, issued a document The Church
and Racism: Towards a More Fraternal Society. In an honest way, the document denounces racism
and at the same time confesses religious involvement in past racist attitudes:
Of course, Christians themselves must humbly admit that members of the Church, on all levels,
have not always lived out this teaching [the Christian teaching denouncing racism] coherently
throughout history. Nonetheless, she must continue to proclaim what is right while seeking to do
“the truth.”
The Church and Racism deals with many problems of the past: racism in Antiquity; Greek and
Roman attitudes toward other people; the attitude of the Church vis-a-vis the Indians in America;
medieval anti-Judaism. The document describes past mistakes with a sincerity that touches the
heart of the reader and invites Catholics, as well as other faith communities, to ponder the meaning
of racism in history.
The Church and Racism complements the thinking of previous Vatican documents on anti-
Semitism. It points out the roots of Nazi anti-Semitism, stating that 18th-century racism, using
“science” to justify prejudice, “had considerable resonance in Germany” and influenced the Nazi
decisions that produced one of the greatest “genocides in history”:
This murderous folly struck first and foremost the Jewish people in unheard-of proportions, as
well as other people, such as Gypsies and the Tziganes and also categories of persons such as the
handicapped and the mentally ill. It was only a step from racism to eugenics, and it was quickly
taken.
It is true that the Nazis included in their racist program the destruction of Poles and Russians,
Gypsies and handicapped people, but the Jewish case was unique. Jews were sentenced to death
by reason of birth; the Nuremberg laws were part of a state ideology of immolation. This is
recognized by the document when it refers specifically to the Shoah as the “Jewish Holocaust.”
The Vatican document devotes Section 15 to denounce anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism:
Among the manifestations of systematic racial distress, specific mention must once again be made
of anti-Semitism. If anti-Semitism has been the most tragic form that racist ideology has assumed
in our century, with the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust, it has unfortunately not yet entirely
disappeared. As if some had nothing to learn from the crimes of the past, certain organizations
with branches in many countries keep alive an anti-Semite racist myth, with the support of
networks of publications.
Terrorist acts which have Jewish persons or symbols as their targets have multiplied in recent
years and showed the radicalism of such groups. Anti-Zionism - which is not of the same order,
since it questions the State of Israel and its policies - serves at times as a screen for anti-Semitism,
feeding on it and leading to it Furthermore, some countries impose undue harassment and
restrictions on the free emigration of Jews.
The Vatican document The Church and Racism rebukes the U.N. 1975 resolution calling Zionism
a form of racism. The U.N. statement was described by the American bishops as “unjust.” The
President of the U.S. Bishops Conference stated that “its substantial inadequacy both retards the
necessary struggle against racism in the world and opens the door to harrassment, discrimination
and denial of basic rights to members of the Jewish community throughout the world.” The
Vatican criticism reinforces this condemnation.