The Meaning of the Anti-Semitism and Its Social, Cultural and Religious Sources According to the Document „The Church in the Face of Racism” Cover Image

Pojęcie antysemityzmu i jego społeczne, kulturowe i religijne źródła w świetle dokumentu Kościół wobec rasizmu
The Meaning of the Anti-Semitism and Its Social, Cultural and Religious Sources According to the Document „The Church in the Face of Racism”

Author(s): Grzegorz Ignatowski
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Social differentiation, History of the Holocaust, History of Antisemitism, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne w Łodzi
Keywords: anti-Semitism; Iustitia et Pax Commission; holocaust;

Summary/Abstract: The subject of anti-Semitism has frequently been addressed in the Christian-Jewish dialogues. The article aims at analyzing the document The Church in the Face of Racism. A Contribution Towards a More Brotherly Society, issued in 1988 by the Pontifical Commission Iustitia et Pax, dealing with the question of the anti-Jewish attitudes from the historical and the racial perspectives. The Vatican Commission states that the Catholic Church has condemned the Nazi anti-Semitism and their policy and as a proof quotes the documents, announced before World War II: the encyclicals of Pope Pius XI Mit Brennender Sorge (1937), the non promulgated Humani generis unitas (1938), and the document of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office On the Annulment of the Association Called „Amici Israel” (1928). The article aims to prove that although the mentioned pre-war documents condemned Nazism and anti-Semitism, they contained some anti-Jewish passages and generated anti-Semitic attitudes. On the other hand the document of the Commission Iustitia et Pax takes up the question of the anti-Zionism which is not very often considered in other declarations of the Catholic Church. Condemning the racial prejudices including anti-Semitism The Church in the Face of Racism underscores that every human being is created in the likeness and image of God and stresses the principal rights of men and women. This perspective forms basis for the modern cooperation between Catholics and Jews in the fields of human dignity, religious freedom and tolerance.

  • Issue Year: 15/2006
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 69-79
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish