Page 106 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

honesty, the courage, the moral mettle, to turn itself around, to admit its error, to say: too many of us were silent, passive, when Jews were being rejected, persecuted, and eventually murdered by Hitler’s regime’.
I continued, ‘At Vatican II, the Catholic Church drew a line in the sand and repudiated previous patterns of anti- Judaism. Catholics forged a new path of respect, dialogue and reconciliation with the Jewish people. This was the breakthrough signalled by the conciliar declaration Nostra Aetate’.
I added, ‘It takes a deeply anchored tradition, with roots planted in very rich soil, to be able to do that. We couldn’t have pulled ourselves out of the abyss of such failure without a profound grace, truth and moral depth sustaining our existence as a church’.
The relief in their faces was palpable.
Since October 7, however, I harbour a painful dilemma. If I were to stand before those teachers now, would I be able to as confidently utter that same reassurance: that the Catholic Church has resolutely ‘turned the corner’, chosen the path of reconciliation over antisemitism?
The attacks of October 7 have shaken me to the core. The date will forever be indelibly marked in Jewish memory, and eventually in Christian memory too, as the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and as the trigger for an unprecedented surge in antisemitism around the world.
Against the backdrop of historical Christian antisemitism, October 7 called for the strongest of responses by the churches. For Catholics this was their historic ‘Nostra Aetate moment’. Put to the test was six decades of Catholic teaching that had repeatedly affirmed the close bond between Christians and Jews and their shared resolve. ‘Never Again’ would a Holocaust
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