A cardinal's resounding message to those who call themselves Christians and hate Jews

Antisemitism was the driving force behind one of the greatest genocides in history, the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis in the 20th century.

The words of Pope Saint John Paul II to the Jews, our 'older brothers'
Anti-Semitic and Christian? Beware of those who try to repeat this infamous deception

Sadly, antisemitism has resurfaced following the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. This new wave of antisemitism is primarily promoted by Islamists and left-wing extremists, but as a Christian, I cannot help but feel ashamed when I see people who claim to be Christians and promote hatred of Jews, those Jews whom Pope Saint John Paul II called our "elder brothers."

This week, The Free Press published an article by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York. This is an excellent and courageous article, especially directed at those who promote such hatred through social media, and to whom Monsignor Dolan reminds of the incompatibility between Christianity and antisemitism. In his article, the Archbishop of New York recalls the following:

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I hope this message is clear enough: Antisemitism is a grave sin, the work of Satan himself. The devil hopes to divide God’s people, to make them fear and eventually hate each other. In rejecting Satan’s lies and empty promises, as Christians are called to do this Lent, in the weeks before Easter—and as our Jewish neighbors prepare for Passover — we renounce his plans to divide the children of Abraham from one another.

Not long after the October 7, 2023 atrocity in Israel, which irrationally unleashed a new viral strain of Jew-hatred, I received a letter from a Jewish mom on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Every morning she would walk her little daughter to school and would smile at her neighbor as that mom walked her two children to the nearby Catholic school. “That Catholic mom must have noted my anxiety and fear those dreadful days after the attack,” the Jewish mom wrote, “because she came up to me and whispered, ‘Why don’t we all walk together?’”

For any Jewish people who might be reading this, please know: The Catholic Church stands with you in the struggle against antisemitism. And for those on social media who call themselves Christians but spread hate against Jews, we say that they have become blinded to core tenets of the faith they proclaim; that we are all equal in the eyes of God, that Christianity is a stem that grows off the good olive tree that is the Jewish faith, and that in the words of Pope Francis, “a Christian cannot be an antisemite.”

“Rather,” the Holy Father added, “we are called to commit ourselves to ensure that antisemitism is banned from the human community.”

Thank you very much, Monsignor Dolan, for your words, which, as a Catholic, I fully endorse.

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Photo: OSV News photo/CNS file, Bob Roller.