Del, I totally agree with you on still hidden Vatican involvement in World War II. I was looking around on the net this morning and found this article by an organization of Christians in Israel. It is about several different issues, but one of the things it does is acknowledge that Christians in Europe played a role creating a climate where the Holocaust could happen:
A PLEDGE BY CHRISTIANS TO OUR JEWISH NEIGHBORS
The following pledge was developed by CPT Hebron and distributed at the Peacemaker Congress Dec. 28, 1996.
Improvement of relationships with Jews is fundamental to creating an atmosphere for peace in the Middle East. You
are invited to sign this pledge and to send your signiture(s) to CPT. A local person should be selected to maintian a
list of locat signatories. CPT encourages the pledge to be published in local newspapers along with the names of
local signatories.
On November 18, 1996, an Israeli military court in Jaffa sentenced four Israeli undercover unit officers to one hour
in jail and fined them one agora(about 1/3 of a cent) for assassinating the wrong Palestinian in 1993. This incident
reflects the contempt for Palestinian life present in most sectors of Israeli society.
Israeli policy supports the torture and murder of Palestinians, the confiscation of their land, the demolition oftheir
houses, the closure of their schools, the restriction of their water supply and their imprisonment without charges
while the international community either remains silent or protests to no effect.
The worldwide church has been part of this ineffectual response to Israel's egregious human rights abuses. As heirs
to a tradition that sanctioned the dehumanization and persecution of Jews for centuries and paved the way for the
Nazi holocaust, we are loathe to cause any more suffering to the Jewish community. We know that criticism by
Christians of Israel has been interpreted by some as criticism of Judaism. We also know that contempt for Jews still
exists in our societies and that Jewish fears of renewed persecution are not without basis, given the atrocities already
committed in this century.
Therefore, we the undersigned, make the following pledge:
We will not let comments which reflect a contempt for Jews or Judaism to pass unchallenged. We will not laugh at
jokes that ridicule Jews. We will monitor the political arena and the media for examples of anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Should we see racist demagogues arising in our countries as they did in Europe after WWI we will oppose these
demagogues with all the political power at our disposal.
We will challenge attempts to deny the Holocaust happened or to down-play its seriousness. We will commit
ourselves to fighting the political, spiritual and economic forces that can lead to genocide.
We will educate ourselves and our children about the profound and beautiful contributions Judaism and Jewish
people have made to our spiritual and intellectual lives and toward the well-being of our societies.
Should evil circumstances in our societies lead to a renewed persecution of our Jewish neighbors, near or far, it is
our intention to risk ostracism, arrest, and if necessary, our lives, to protect Jews and to confound their oppressors.
However, because of our concern for human rights, inspired by the Jewish prophets and a Jewish carpenter from
Nazareth, we can no longer pay the price exacted by some people for meaningful Jewish-Christian dialogue--that of
silence regarding Israel's human rights abuses. We believe that silence makes us complicit in the injustices at work in
Israel and Palestine. We realize our intention to confront Israeli abuses of power may mean that we cannot have
harmonious relationships with some of our Jewish friends. We will mourn the loss of these relationships. We will
also pray for the eventual restoration of these relationships as we pray for a just peace between Israelis and
Palestinians. And until such time as the restoration of these relationships occurs , we will celebrate those Palestinians
and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims who have worked diligently and self-sacrificially for justice in the Holy
Land.
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