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Catholic Educator, in Radio Talk, Hits Racism, Calls Jew His “spiritual Ancestor”

March 15, 1939
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Denouncing “the forces operating in our day to arouse racial and religious animosities,” the Rev. Maurice S. Sheehy, head of the Department of Religious Education of the Catholic University of America, tonight saluted the Jew “as my spiritual ancestor” in an address over the Columbia Broadcasting System network.

Dr. Sheehy, who spoke under the auspices of the Council Against Intolerance in America on “The Popes Condemn Anti-Semitism,” quoted historical facts and records to show that Popes, from Gregory the Great in the sixth century up to Pius XI, opposed anti-Semitism and sought to protect the Jews. Citing the famous statement of Pope Pius XI in September, 1938, denouncing anti-Semitism and declaring that “we are Semites spiritually,” Dr. Sheehy offered, as an explanation of these words, that “Catholic life is enriched by and flows out of the heritage of Jewish religious culture.”

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