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Posts: 5277
Oct 6 06 10:58 AM
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Quote:While many other reviewers choose to launch polemical attacks on Kertzer's book, I think it likely that most never read it. Far from their assertion that Kertzer seeks to equate Nazism and Catholicism broadly, the author instead offers a nuanced analysis of the relationship between the Catholic Church's activities particularly in the 19th and early 20th Century and the birth of modern anti-Semitism. Having been given considerable access to the archives of the Church, he develops, brick by brick, the Church's complicity in the rise of the modern hatred of Jews. While the book is far too large for a close examination here, several examples of the Church's contribution stand out.Many consider Blood Liable an ancient scar on the Church, but one so old that it bears little attention. For those unfamiliar, Blood Liable refers to the collection of charges that Jews use the blood of Christian children to make Matzos on Passover in a perversion of the communion wafer. This evil myth began in Europe in the Middle Ages and was frequently leveled against Jewish Communities before they suffered oppression and murder at the hands of the Christian majority. Kertzer demonstrates that, far from being an ancient myth, this horrible liable held sway in the Church into the 20th Century. Documenting Blood Liable allegations at the beginning of the 20th Century in respected Church newspapers, Kertzer then uses the notes and letters of high level Church officials to show how this sick belief was wide spread within the Vatican. Blood Liable was an instrumental piece of the fabric of modern anti-Semitism.Kertzer goes further to show how the Church spread the idea of an evil international Jewish conspiracy, an idea Catholics did not invent, but spread widely through Western Europe. Further, Kertzer shows how when important Catholics tried to denounce anti-Semitism within the Church, their co-religionists quickly branded them as dupes or traitors to the international Jewish conspiracy. Such myths of the power hungry blood drinking Jew went a long way to creating the view of Jews as less then human that eventually enabled Catholics across Europe, from France to Poland to willingly aid in the slaughter of their Jewish neighbors.As Kertzer points out, the Church clings to two shaky pillars to profess their innocence. The first, that while individual, even high ranking Catholics may commit evil, the Church is, by definition, pure and guiltless. The theological basis of this argument makes it difficult to counter, but suffice to say, none Catholics have no such beliefs and hold all institutions accountable for the evil committed within their walls and by their leadership. The second, defense argues that Catholics were a target of fascism and, as victims, cannot hold any responsibility for their evil. This argument is only partially true. Yes, Christianity was a target of Nazism, though not of fascism in general (in Italy, France, Romania, other countries under fascist rule no such conflict existed). However, in several places the Catholic Church worked with Hitler's army, in such things as allowing Catholic chaplains to serve in the Nazi army, even for such morally dubious units as the Waffen SS.Popes Against the Jews goes a long way towards documenting the largely buried history of Catholic attacks on Jews in the modern era. While that surely makes many unhappy, it is a crucial step for real healing to begin.The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism
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