From Reuters:
“Pope asks Catholics to say
'Never Again' to the Holocaust”
Pope Francis on Sunday asked the
world's 1.3 billion Catholics to stop for a moment of prayer and reflection on
the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and
say "Never Again". The pope mentioned Monday's anniversary during his
weekly noon address and blessing to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's
Square. "Indifference is inadmissible before this enormous tragedy, this
atrocity, and memory is a duty. Tomorrow, we are all invited to stop for a
moment of prayer and reflection, each one of us saying in our own heart: 'never
again, never again,'" he said. More than one million people, most of them
Jews, were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during World War Two. Overall,
some six million Jews died in the Holocaust. The pope's appeal to his own flock
comes amid a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States.
Last week, Francis called the rise a "barbaric resurgence". On
Friday, anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled on the door of the home of a son
of a Holocaust survivor in northern Italy. The words "Juden Hier"
(Jews Here) were written above a Star of David on the door, recalling the signs
put on buildings in Nazi Germany to mark the homes and businesses of Jews. Last
month in eastern France, scores of Jewish graves were found desecrated in a
cemetery, hours before lawmakers adopted a resolution equating anti-Zionism
with anti-Semitism. France has Europe’s biggest Jewish community - around
550,000 - and anti-Semitic attacks are common, with more than 500 alone in
2018.A global survey https://global100.adl.org/about/2019 by the U.S.-based
Anti-Defamation League in November found that anti-Semitic attitudes had
increased in many places around the world and significantly in Eastern and
Central Europe. It also found that large percentages of people in Eastern and
Western European countries think Jews talk too much about the Holocaust. Before
he became pope and was still archbishop of his native Buenos Aires, Francis
co-authored a book with his friend, Argentine rabbi Abraham Skorka. In 2016,
Francis visited Rome's main synagogue, in the former ghetto established by his
predecessor Pope Paul IV in 1555 and where Jews were confined until the 19th
century.
^ It’s important for all people - no matter what religion they are - to remember the innocent men, women and
children that were murdered during the Holocaust. With that said I’m glad the
Pope made this appeal. ^
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-asks-catholics-never-again-125516991.html?guccounter=1
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.