Anti-Semitic and Christian? Beware of those who try to repeat this infamous deception

@ElentirENG ES 4·15·2024 · 18:02 0

Anti-Semitism is a stinking scourge that still exists and that already caused one of the largest genocides in history in the 20th century.

The words of Pope Saint John Paul II to the Jews, our 'older brothers'
Polish Catholics: the great forgotten when talking about the victims of the Holocaust

Today, anti-Semitism is an especially strong scourge among Islamism and among the extreme left, two sectors of society in which hatred of Jews also materializes in a visceral hatred towards the State of Israel. But far-right anti-Semitism also continues to exist, even if it is marginal. Some very minority neo-fascist organizations continue to display their hatred of Jews, sometimes disguising it with other clothes.

One of the most common disguises of this anti-Semitic extreme right is Christianity. They intend to promote hatred of Jews by breaking the ties of fraternity that exist between the Jewish and Christian communities. Let us remember that Pope Saint John Paul II rightly defined the Jews as "our favorite brothers and, in a way, one could say our older brothers."

It is not the first time that this vague thing that is usually labeled as "extreme right" uses Christianity as a pretext to promote anti-Semitism. This infamous deception was already used by National Socialism, a radically anti-Christian totalitarian movement and neo-pagan in nature. We must remember that in Poland, nazi Germany murdered 3 million Jews and also 2.5 million ethnic Poles, mostly Catholics.

Among those murdered by the Nazis during the German occupation of Poland were saints like Maximilian Kolbe and 108 Catholic martyrs who were beatified by John Paul II in 1999. In 2023, the Catholic Church beatified all members of a Polish Catholic family, the Ulma, murdered by the Nazis for helping the Jews.

The Catholic Church is very clear in its condemnation of anti-Semitism, to which we must add a fact that many anti-Semites overlook: Christ was born within the Jewish people, so hating to the Jews is also to hate Christ. For this reason, and because racism is a sin that goes against Christ's commandment to "love one another", a Christian cannot be anti-Semitic. Those who want to justify their repugnant hatred against the Jews, better find another disguise for the poison they have in their soul against a people that has already suffered colossal atrocities because of that hatred.

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Photo: VaticanNews. Saint John Paul II with Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff, during the Polish Pope's visit to the Great Synagogue in Rome on April 13, 1986.