But this is no easy ride/For a child cries… - The Smiths, “Suffer Little Children”
We often spotlight obscene analogies with the history of antisemitism, and particularly the Holocaust, made by individuals on the far left. No less obscene are the widely-reported remarks of Raniero Cantalamessa, a Franciscan priest, approvingly quoting an unnamed “Jewish friend” who compared the storm over sexual abuse carried out by Catholic clergy with the persecution of Jews through the ages. Pope Benedict was present in the same church as he said it.
For a Vatican representative to try to usurp the role of victim from those who suffered the nightmare of being beaten, groped, abused and raped when they were children is shameful enough. For him to do so by invoking a history which culminated in the Holocaust - among whose victims were 1.5 million children - beggars belief.
The government of Argentina has decided to expel Richard Williamson, the Holocaust-denying Catholic bishop, from the country. According to Horacio Verbitsky, a veteran journalist with close ties to the present administration, the decision was taken not only because the British cleric had obtained his visa - and subsequently his status as a permanent resident - on the basis of lies about the real nature of his activities here, but also because of his “despicable antisemitic declarations” which have “attacked the deepest feelings of both the Jewish community and society as a whole.”
Continue reading ‘Holocaust Denier Bishop Expelled From Argentina’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
In the winter of 1077, Emperor Henry IV journeyed to Canossa near Reggio nell’Emilia as a simple penitent. On January 28, after waiting for three days, he received absolution from Pope Gregory VII. The name Canossa thus became associated with submission to the church.
Continue reading ‘Pius X Society: No Need for Canossa’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Reading the news about the reintegration of a notorious Holocaust denier into the Catholic Church, as well as the open letter of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn to the Chief Rabbi of Austria and the Jewish community on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day, reminded me of my boyhood experiences at the elementary school in Baden bei Wien during the 1930s.
Continue reading ‘A Challenge for the Church’
I’ve already looked at a theory about what might be delaying the beatification of Pope Pius XII and I have now come across an even more advanced example of it here. The theory, briefly but not unfairly put, holds that the only thing that is holding the former Pope back from beatification and later becoming a saint is the antipathy of the Jews towards him and their over influence the Vatican.
Continue reading ‘Let’s Be Fair To Benedict XVI’
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
Antisemitism is tolerated in Hungary - and not only in its crudest form, as when a uniformed rabble marches in the streets or when Neo-Nazis provoke Jews in front of their synagogues. It is also part and parcel of Hungarian right wing politics. Usually antisemitism is coded, but the code is very simple. Here is just one recent example.
Continue reading ‘“The cosmopolitan-parasite class…”: Antisemitism in Hungary’
