Was the Enemy Really Liberalism?

Second in a series of contributions to a dialogue between Catholic and Jewish scholars, leaders, and clergy.

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In response to interest in Catholic-Jewish relations-- as exemplified by the popularity of David Kertzer's "The Popes Against the Jews" and James Carroll's "Constantine's Sword," as well as a new Vatican document about the Jewish wait for the messiah -- Beliefnet recently launched a new dialogue between Catholic and Jewish scholars, leaders, and clergy called "The Vatican and the Jews: Understanding the Past, Looking Toward the Future." The dialogue is in the form of an email exchange. Beliefnet will periodically post contributions from the participants.

The dialogue continues with the following question about the Vatican's stance towards both Jews and liberalism:

 Fr. John Pawlikowski raised an interesting point about both his and David Kertzer's belief, as addressed in "The Popes Against the Jews," that the Vatican's real enemy during the years before and during the Holocaust was liberalism. Do you agree that the Vatican didn't speak out against anti-Semitism because it viewed Jews or Judaism as too liberal or modern? Was liberalism really the enemy in the eyes of the Vatican?

Albert Friedlander, dean of the Leo Baeck College, a school in England for the study of Judaism and the training of rabbis and teachers, responds:

As we have mentioned before, the Vatican's war against secularism, liberalism, and also Communism clearly included the thought that Jews were favoured by a secular society; and the popular notion of Jews as central to Communism was very much part of Vatican thinking.

However, I think it is an overreaction to conclude that, for that reason, the Vatican did not speak out against antisemitism. (Note: I still write 'antisemitism' because I accept James Parkes' view that the word is senseless when it is broken apart with a hyphen).

Continued on page 2: »

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Related Topics:

Faiths, Leo Baeck College, Judaism, Antisemitism, Jews, Liberal Thoughts, Vatican, Anti Jewish Tradition, Outer Margins, Liberalism, Email Exchange

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