The assembled Catholic bishops of Europe heard a ringing condemnation of the persecution of Jews by Christians at the opening of a special two-week synod convened at the Vatican on Nov. 28.
The speaker, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, denounced anti-Semitism of which, he said, the Holocaust was the “terrible apex,” a “gigantic crime” that contained the “perversion of European humanism” and the “denial of the brotherhood of man.”
Ruini, a key official at the synod, extolled Jewish culture as “a constituent element in the development of European civilization.”
It was not known whether Ruini’s remarks were written before or after the European Jewish Congress asked the synod to “respect and affirm the principle of religious and cultural pluralism that without a doubt constitutes a fundamental principle of modern Europe.”
The EJC made its request in a letter delivered a week earlier to Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, president of the European Episcopal Conference.
The letter expressed Jewish concerns and reservations about parts of the synod’s preparatory document.
The synod was called to assess the state of religion and its future in post-Communist Europe. Jews were troubled by its stress on the “evangelization of Europe,” meaning an outreach to bring Christianity throughout the continent.
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