Catholic News Reports Antisemitism

[LittleLes]

The Catholic News Service, from Vatican City, reported that the beatification of Father Leo Dehon, founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart due to be beatified by John Paul II before his death, has had his cause put on hold. This is because of the antisematic nature of seven texts which he wrote. The wrote that the Jews were "thirsty for gold" and "united in their hatred of Christ." Also that the Talmud, the Jewish holy book ,was a "manual for the bandit, the corrupter, the social destroyer."

He supported the ideas found in Pope Paul IV's "Cum Nimis Absurdum" that Jews should be marked by special clothing, isolated in ghettos, and excluded from certain professions such as teaching."

His supporters counterargue (correctly) that antisemiticism was wide spread in Europe during his time.

Tom Macabi points out that Christian antisemitism's origin can be traced to St. John's Gospel:

"John's Gospel is obsessed with "the Jews". Thus "Jew" or "the Jews" is mentioned 71 times in John, but only 5 times in Matthew; 6 times in Mark and 5 times in Luke. At least 35 of John's references are antisemitic. The Jews are portrayed as persecutors of Jesus (5:16). They disapprove of him (6:41); seek to murder him (7:10); are blind to his teaching (7:31); claim that he has a demon (8:52) and stone him (8:59). John's Gospel uses "the Jews" as a blanket term that obliterates the essential distinctions seen in the Synoptic Gospels (i.e. Matthew, Mark and Luke). Note how, for example, as the tension is wound up in chapter 9, "the Pharisees" (a specific term) become "the Jews" (an indiscriminate term)."

John reports Jesus as having said of the Jews (Jn 8:44)
"You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father's desires." (Somehow, I don't think Jesus really ever said that).

Some Catholics refuse to accept the reality of the history of Catholic antisemitism and its scriptural underpinnings. But then some refuse to accept that the Holocaust was a fact of history as well.

[Cam42]

[url="http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503472.htm"]The whole story[/url]......

[quote name='from the article']Cardinals Etchegaray and Cottier were key figures in the church's 1999-2000 "examination of conscience" that, among other things, asked forgiveness for historical wrongs by Christians regarding Jews and Judaism.[/quote]

[quote name='from same article']But one source said that because Pope John Paul approved Father Dehon's "heroic virtues" and approved a miracle attributed to his intercession....[/quote]

Interesting that LittleLes doesn't include these in his critique from an article of a week ago.

And Tom Macabi most certainly doesn't speak for the Church....I daresay that he is not even Catholic. And if you are basing all of this on a forum posting, LittleLes....you had better dig deeper than that. Not hard to find what you are looking for, now is it?

As for the anti-Semetic accusations, they don't warrant a response....I would prayerfully ask that no one engage LittleLes on that particular issue.....he is baiting and trolling.....off of a closed thread......bad form.

[yiannii]

Hey LittleLes,

I stopped attempting to engage in debates with you a long time ago as I quickly learnt that no matter what I said, you never seemed to understand my points. The only reason why I write in response to your post is because I am stuck at Uni for another fifteen minutes before the politics office opens so I can collect my results.

For anyone to take seriously what you have claimed about Father Leo Dehon's writings, I think you will need to provide at leased one reputable source.

I have read the Gospel according to St. John and I must admit I did not feel that there was an anti-Semitic theme or colour in it.

Yiannii.

[IcePrincessKRS]

This is ridiculous. The comments about the Bible being anti-semitic are unfounded and.... just plain stoooopid. Seeing as I can't figure out what exactly Les wants to debate we're going to say "bye-bye" to this thread.