Abating Antisemitism in the Wake of the Holocaust: Recent Efforts by the Catholic Church

Abstract

Abstract:During the years of the Holocaust, Angelo G. Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, learned about the unfolding mass murder and tried to support rescue efforts. Upon becoming pope, he initiated the Second Vatican Council, which resulted in the "Jewish Document," or Nostra Aetate ("In Our Time"), which exonerated the Jewish people from the collective charge of deicide, reinstated God's covenant with the children of Israel, and denounced antisemitism. Since then a number of papal documents have followed, all imbued with the same wish to foster a brotherly dialogue with the Jewish people after the Holocaust, calling for mutual respect, depicting Jews as the beloved elderly brothers of Christians, and denouncing antisemitism. This process culminated in a long address issued by Pope Francis on December 10, 2015 in which he emphatically declared that a Christian cannot be an antisemite because Judaism is the source of Christianity. This ongoing process of rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people is important and is not as well-known as it should be among both Jews and Christians.