Why Are They Afraid of Pope Francis? 10

Pope Francis greets friend,

Rabbi Abraham Skorka 

Last week a group of “traditionalist Catholics” disrupted an interfaith service in the Catholic Cathedral of Buenos Aires Argentina marking the 75 anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in which Nazi mobs attacked and burned over a thousand German synagogues and countless Jewish owned shops and homes as Adolf Hitler notched up his campaign that resulted in the murder of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps. 

Members of the Society of Saint Pius X, a schismatic movement within the Catholic Church that rejects the teachings of the Second Vatican Council began shouting traditional Catholic prayers as Catholic Archbishop Mario Poli, joined by Catholic clergy and faithful welcomed Rabbi Abraham Skorka—a personal friend and collaborator of Pope Francis—and other rabbis and Jewish faithful in the service.  The disruption was seen as a personal attack on the papacy of Pope Francis who has renewed and revived interest in interfaith cooperation. 

The Reverend Christian Bouchancourt, the South American head of the Society of Saint Pius X said that welcoming Jews to the Cathedral was a desecration of the space that had been consecrated for Catholic Worship.  Bouchancourt and his followers proclaimed that “followers of false gods must be kept out of the temple…” 

Rebel Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who in 1970 established the Society of Saint Pius X is famous for his rejection of the liturgical reforms in the Roman Catholic Church, but his more fundamental rebellion is against the Decrees of the Council itself, particularly those which sanctioned Religious Freedom and Ecumenical and Interfaith Dialogues.  Lefebvre, a French Royalist was a notorious anti-Semite and anti-Semitism is fairly common among “traditionalist Catholics.”  The history of French anti-Semitism is closely tied to the Royalist factions and in the late 19^th century manifested itself in the Dreyfus affair in which Catholic Royalists framed a Jewish artillery officer, Alfred Dreyfus for treason.  Collaboration of conservative Catholics with the Vichy regime during the German occupation of France in World War II marks another sad chapter of Catholic anti-Semitism.  Most recently, Society of St. Pius X Bishop Richard Williamson denied that the Nazi extermination of European Jewry ever happened.  He was later dismissed from the Society for unrelated charges. 

Anti-Semitism and other forms of racism are common among traditionalist and neo-traditionalist groups.  When I look at some of the bête noire sites I regularly check—Les Femmes, Restore DC Catholicism, Eponymous Flower—we see that their undeclared agenda is not fidelity to the Church but a sort of Tea Party Catholicism that is set upon a social agenda most often at odds with the Church’s magisterium.   Racist comments are not rare on these sites any more than other forms of social bullying.  Indeed this is the real objection that most neo-trads have not only to the post-Conciliar Liturgical Rites, but to the vision of the place the Church has in the modern world as the Herald of God’s Kingdom of Justice and Peace.

Never Forget

A mural on a wall in Kazimierz, the

old Jewish quarter of Krakow where

a vibrant Jewish community thrived

until destroyed in the Holocaust.

The Jewish Community of Krakow is an orthodox Jewish community the range of which is the south-east part of Poland. Currently the Community numbers about 100 members. The main synagogue which is functioning is the orthodox Remuh Synagogue. Additionally, sometimes two other synagogues are used for services, the Kupa Synagogue and the Tempel Synagogue. Apart from that the Congregation is the legal owner of the following synagogues in Krakow: the Old Synagogue (Alte Shul; currently a museum), Isaac Synagogue, High Synagogue, Popper Synagogue, Mizrachi Shul and other buildings located in the Małopolska area, such as synagogues in Bobowa, Grybów or Słomniki. Also, the Congregation is takes care of the following cemeteries: the New Cemetery (the only functioning Jewish cemetery in Krakow), the Remuh Cemetery and the Abraham Cemetery in Krakow; cemeteries in Tarnów, Nowy Targ, Zakopane, Bochnia, Nowy Sącz, Krynica, Łabowa and Gorlice. The congregation also holds a kosher lunchroom, seniors' club and a mikveh. The Chief Rabbi of Krakow is Rabbi Boaz Pash. An important part of the Jewish life in Krakow is the Jewish Community Centre (JCC Krakow) which was established due to an initiative of His Royal Highness, Prince Charles of Wales, the Jewish Religious Congregation in Krakow and with the support of World Jewish Relief and American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The Jewish Community Centre in Krakow is a vibrant and living place, and educational and cultural centre, and the meeting place for the Jewish community.

        I found this information on a website about the Jewish Community in Krakow while researching another topic and it struck me to the heart.  I have been to Krakow several times; it is one of my favorite cities in Europe.  it was only on my third visit to the city, however, that I went to Kazimierz, the old Jewish Quarter and saw the remains of a once vibrant culture that was all but destroyed—indeed I think one can say was destroyed—by the ravages of the Holocaust.  Look at the number of synagogues once needed: The Remuh Synagogue, the Tempel Synagogue, the Kupa Synagogue, the Alte Shul, the Issac Synagogue, the High Synagogue, the Popper Synagogue, the Mizrachi Shul –all these synagogues and now only one hundred Jews in Krakow!!!  As best as I can determine there were approximately 64,000 Jews in Krakow before the Nazi invasion of 1939, and now there are a hundred.  It is sobering to think of such loss of life.  
       I have been twice to Auschwitz I (the work camp) and Auschwitz Birkenau (the extermination camp) on the edge of Krakow. One should never go to these places more than once.  The camps are seared into your memory.  There was absolutely nothing that I saw the second time that I had not remembered in horrid detail from my first visit.  We must ask ourselves how this sort of hatred could have existed.  We must ask ourselves why we failed as Christians and as a Church to protest it.  anyone who says it could not happen again, is either naïve or disingenuous.  It may not be the Jews, but it could be anyone.  Hatred and prejudice run strong in cultures under economic or political stress.  At some point I want to do some entries on Catholicism and anti-semitism as well as Catholicism and the Third Reich.  The stories are very complex.  But for today, I just think of the tens of thousands of ghosts of Kazimierz—the children, the women, the old men, the pregnant, the ill, the poor and the rich, the believers and the non-believers—whose lives and heritage were snuffed out.