Our Brothers’ Keepers: Catholics Against Antisemitism

On October 7, the terrorist organization Hamas decided to follow the Nazi playbook once more. As one observer of World War II put it, the Nazis “ripped the lid off Hell.” That’s what Hamas did. It ripped the lid off Hell. The comparison is inescapable. As noted earlier in this gathering, the Catholic moral record during World War II and the Holocaust was mixed. There were outstanding exceptions. But many European Christians, and others, back then and elsewhere in history, wronged our older brothers and sisters in faith. Many did not view the bond that tethers Catholics and Jews as unbreakable, but as one to escape when loopholes like war or personal advantage presented themselves.

That is what we need to change. We must forge, and render visible, a new alliance between Jews and Catholics, the like of which has not existed before.

There’s an observation by Pope Paul VI that’s been quoted many times, including by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. It is this: “Contemporary man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, or if he listens to teachers, he does so because they are witnesses.” So I’m also going to stand and deliver as a witness. Following are three stories about anti-Semitism from different moments in my own life. Like all stories, their details are particular. But their lessons are universal, applying to us all.