In Historic Meeting with Rabbis, Pope Francis Decries Rising Anti-Semitism in Europe

In a historic encounter, Francis met in the Vatican with a delegation from the Conference of European Rabbis, the first time a pope has ever met with the Conference.

 

The Pope underscored that all Christians “must be firm in deploring all forms of anti-Semitism, and in showing their solidarity with the Jewish people.” He also remarked on the recent seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the concentration camp “which has come to be synonymous with the great tragedy of the Shoah.”

 

“The memory of what took place there, in the heart of Europe, is a warning to present and future generations,” he said.

 

“Acts of hatred and violence against Christians and the faithful of other religions must likewise be condemned everywhere,” he added.

 

Pope Francis also proposed that in the face of rampant secularism in Europe and other parts of the world, Jews and Christians have a co-responsibility to keep faith in God alive. Both Jews and Christians, he said, have “the blessing but also the responsibility to help preserve the religious sense of the men and women of today, and that of our society.”

 

European society, he said, is “increasingly marked by secularism and threatened by atheism,” and “we run the risk of living as if God did not exist.”

 

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