Category: Pope Francis

Anti-Semitism on the rise by nearly 40%

On By Marc NadeauIn Anti-Semitism, Catholics, Europe, Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, Jews, Pope Francis, Rome, Tel Aviv UniversityLeave a comment
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Rome (Gemelli station), summer 2014.

Last Saturday night, my family and I went to the Synagogue. We are not Jewish. We are proud Catholics. And we believe in the dialogue and friendship between Catholic and Jewish people. And we are always eager to express our solidarity with the Jewish people.

One particular discussion with a middled-aged Jewish man struck a chord in me. In a resigned tone, this gentleman expressed his discouragement at the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

This reminded me of the recent study completed by Tel Aviv University researchers, which revealed that the year 2014 had been characterized by the fact that ant-Semitic incidents rose by nearly 40%.

This is more than preoccupying, since:

“The overall feeling among many Jewish people is one of living in an intensifying anti-Jewish environment that has become not only insulting and threatening, but outright dangerous, and that they are facing an explosion of hatred towards them as individuals, their communities, and Israel, as a Jewish state,” the authors wrote.

Last summer, while waiting for a train at a Rome station, I noticed a large swastika painted on the locomotive. In the last months, I have also heard an alarming number of anti-Semitic comments and observations by various people.

Anti-Semitism is a cancer that is eating up the spirit of tolerance of Europe – and many other parts of the world. We need to fight it with all our energies and determination. For, as Pope Francis recently said “a Christian cannot be anti-Semitic!” And I totally agree with him.

I just wish I could join up with the participants of the upcoming 5th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. I’ll make sure to attend in 2017. Now, more than ever, we need such venues.

Heeding the Pope’s call

On By Marc NadeauIn Catholic, Christians, Just War, Middle East, Pope Francis, St. AugustineLeave a comment
(photo credit: AP Photo/STR) Times of Israel
(photo credit: AP Photo/STR) Times of Israel

Let’s now venture into the Catholic world. Since I’m myself a practicing Catholic, it is a real pleasure of writing about Pope Francis. I don’t want to get too much into the nitty-gritty of the Catholic traditions, but some of you may find it informative. During the Easter season, the Regina Coeli prayer replaces the Angelus. Yesterday, Pope Francis took the opportunity presented to himself by the Regina Coeli prayer to call upon the international community to act, in a concrete way, against the murderous persecution of Christians around the world:

“They are our martyrs of today and there are many of them, we can say that there are more of them now than there were in other times. I hope that the International Community will not stand by, silent and inert, as we witness this unacceptable crime, which represents a worrying violation of the most basic human rights. I earnestly hope that the International Community will not turn a blind eye.”

The Pope is right. We must not stand idle while these atrocities are committed. Not standing idle means taking action. And the actions taken can only be conducted through military actions.

Some of my fellow Catholics might be tempted to agitate the white flags of blind pacifism, arguing that military actions diverge from the Catholic philosophy and traditions. But there’s a whole body of doctrine to support the actions that are now required, as St. Augustine – theoretician of the just war concept – demonstrates.