A vigorous protest against “the cruel indignities heaped upon the Jews in conquered countries” was voiced here yesterday in a “statement on victory and peace” issued by the Catholic Bishops and Archbishops of the United States. The declaration was adopted at the annual general meeting of the Catholic leaders on Wednesday and Thursday and was released last night by the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The Bishops also supported the protest against Jewish persecutions in France issued sometime ago by prominent French Catholic clergymen.
The text of the section of the statement dealing with the treatment of Jews and other minority groups reads: “We feel a deep sense of revulsion against the cruel indignities heaped upon the Jews in conquered countries and upon defenseless peoples not of our faith. We join with our brother Bishops in subjugated France in a statement attributed to them: Deeply moved by the mass arrests and maltreatment of Jews, we cannot stifle the cry of our conscience. In the name of humanity and Christian principles our voice is raised in favor of imprescriptibly rights of human nature.
“We raise our voice in protest against despotic tyrants who have lost all sense of humanity by condemning thousands of innocent persons to death in subjugated countries as acts of reprisals; by placing thousands of innocent victims in concentration camps and by permitting unnumbered persons to die of starvation. The war has brought to the fore conditions that have long been with us. The full benefits of our free institutions and the rights of our minorities must be openly acknowledged and honestly respected.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
