Pope Francis -- Into an ice age: 1. “fuels an already out of control global antisemitism” 2. “Inappropriate comments while antisemitism runs rampant in Europe” and around the world
The South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Waren Goldstein, said, in response,
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“The Pope, repeats the sins of Pope Pius XII from the Nazi era, of surreptitiously supporting the forces of evil who seek to annihilate the Jewish people”
Rome’s Chief Rabbi Dr. Riccardo di Segni voiced his “great disappointment” in the pope, warning,
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Jewish-Catholic relations had taken “many steps backward”
Shortly after the October 7 attacks, hundreds of Jewish leaders and scholars wrote an open letter to Francis, asking the Chuch to unequivocally condemn Hamas’s attacks and to distinguish terrorism from Israel’s war on the group
It took three months for the Pope to respond in a letter that condemned antisemitism, reaffirmed the bond between the Church and Jews and stressed,
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“his heart is torn at the sight of what is happening in the Holy Land, by the power of so much division and so much hatred”
— but failed to mention Hamas
German Catholic theologian Gregor Maria Hoff blasted the Pope’s response,
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“It is not enough to condemn violence without unambiguously identifying the responsible actors
It does not help to invoke the ‘path of friendship, solidarity and cooperation’ while the Jewish partner has to fight for his survival in his own country and on its borders”
