Catholic Leader Says Berrigan Came Very Close to Being Anti-semitic

A Roman Catholic leader has joined other Jewish and Christian leaders in criticizing the Rev. Daniel Berrigan for a recent speech attacking Israel and Jews who support it. In an article recently released by the National Catholic News Service, Msgr. George G. Higgins, director of Social Action for the Catholic Bishops Conference, writes that if Berrigan is not anti-Semitic “it’s obviously up to him to straighten out the record.”

Noting that “a number of Jewish and Christian leaders have charged that the speech was blatantly anti-Semitic,” Msgr. Higgins argues that Berrigan “has yet to face up to the fact that the burden of proof in this regard is his and his alone. Time alone will tell whether or not he is capable of doing so. Meanwhile his name is mud in the Jewish community, and for this he has no one but himself to blame.”

Msgr. Higgins said the speech which Berrigan delivered before Palestinian graduate students in Washington “was an extremely shoddy performance from almost every conceivable point of view and, objectively speaking, came perilously close to being anti-Semitic in tone as well as in content. Closer, in fact, than any recent public statement by an American commentator on the ins-and-outs of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

“In other words, if Berrigan is in trouble because of his recent speech, the trouble is entirely of his own making. At the very least, he skirted around the edges of traditional anti-Semitic bigotry and, in my opinion, added insult to injury by presuming, in a very patronizing manner, to speak for the Jewish community after having viciously attacked its leaders.” Msgr. Higgins also stated: “Berrigan’s unfortunate speech on the Israeli-Arab conflict–again, regardless of his subjective motivation–can serve as a timely warning against the danger of using the Middle East crisis as a camouflaged occasion or excuse for stirring up anti-Semitic propaganda.”