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Austrian Bishops to Act on Ancient Blood Libel Tablet in Church

April 25, 1962
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The Austrian Bishops of Conference was reported today to have placed on its agenda complaints that a Catholic Church, St. Andrews, in Linz, was still exhibiting an old tablet containing a statement of the ancient blood libel against Jews. Linz is in the Tyrol section of Austria.

The tablet, which Catholic guides show to visitors, bears the inscription: “In memory of four-year-old Ursula Bock who was cruelly murdered by Jews on Good Friday, 1443.” A similar tablet was recently removed from a church in Rinn in the same area. According to reports, the Catholic hierarchy in the Tyrol has refused to remove the libelous tablet at St. Andrews Church.

Exhibition of such tablets has been forbidden by Pope John XXIII and all such matter has been ordered removed from Catholic churches. In Poland, where many such tablets have been displayed on church walls, they have been covered.

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