When a person becomes Catholic, after professing the Nicene Creed, he is asked to recite the following phrase:
I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.
This is only natural to say. Why else would somebody become Catholic if they did not believe? Indeed, it is a graver scandal if one does and one does not believe, because the assumption which the Church makes is that one desires to enter in with good intentions.
Something I have made a point to discuss is the situation of the Jews within contemporary social and political discourse. I note the above saying because this statement applies to all of my criticisms as well as praise about them and other topics I write about, and cannot be separated from it.
Throughout history, the Catholic Church has criticized Jews and Judaism. In the post-World War II era, it has become popular to equivocate the words of the Church with those of people who objectively promote hatred and violence in the name of politics, race, or other temporal objectives. There are also people who, quoting what the Church has said, attempt to use the position of the Church to advance their own subversive ends and ultimately to the derogation and blasphemy of the Church and God Himself.
Some people look at the words of the Church and are surprised at the sharp language that is often employed because it violates the contemporary (and from my experience, disproportionately Anglo-American) ethos towards discussing topics of Jews and Judaism. Such a view is also incorrect, for while there have been people in the Church who have used and abused the teachings on Jews and Judaism for their own ends, this does not speak to the teachings themselves, just as the many disturbing teachings clearly codified in the Talmud and Cabbalah, while a part of the orthodox canon of Judaism following the crucifixion, are not followed by all Jews, especially those of good will who seek after what is morally right.
No criticism of any group or idea should be viewed as an attempt to promote a position regarding them that is outside of what the Church teaches.
The Church teaches that as she is the inheritance of Israel in which God dwells in her by way of the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist just as the presence of God dwelled less perfectly in the Ark of the Covenant, she is also the modern Ark of Salvation just like the one that Noah built and the entire world perished saved for those who were within her.
It is out of moral responsibility and necessity for the Church to speak about the Jews, for their benefit and that of the entire world. This has become even more pressing in modern times where many people, including many Jews, will aggressively attempt to promote a hatred of Jews and Judaism by using truthful statements in order to polarize society, incite violence, and then use the chaos to direct long-term political goals.
The only way that such violence can be stopped or controlled is by addressing what the Church teaches in Sacred Tradition. The words of Sacred Scripture are already clear, as the Bible describes the Jews- sometimes using the words of Our Lord Himself -as a people who willfully murder the innocent, engage in sodomy, oppress the poor, widow, orphan, and foreigner, and deprive the working man of his justly earned wages. Not even the pagans were referred to in scripture, but the Jew, as a the “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah”. Yet at the same time, this is the same God who says that if they repent, their sins shall be washed clean from them and the garments of their soul, which are made red with the blood of the innocent, would become as white as snow. This is the exact position that Sacred Tradition, which helps us to explain the Bible by way of the Church Fathers, the Church Councils, the liturgy, the monastic tradition, the writings of the saints, and the entire corpus of Christian history that constitutes the Magesterium of the Catholic Church adopts, for the Church is the place where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass takes place that opened up the way to Heaven for the human race, and thus it is Her commission from Christ not to change, but to fulfill the law and the prophets of old, and to explain for every age that which “existed from the foundations of the Earth” so that men might go in the way of peace and salvation to attain union with their Creator in the way that He has prescribed them to do it.
It is my hope that for you, this list will serve as a continually-expanding reference of saints, documents, and incidents in the Catholic Church that discuss and reflect her position on Jews and the Jewish people. This is not something that is neither “pro-Jewish” or “anti-Jewish”, but rather is Catholic in that its purpose is to address the status of and questions of Jews and Jewish history that pertain to many and demonstrate the Church position: that Jews are not exceptional people as compared to others, that they are bound by the same laws as all of the sons of Noah, that God desires all men to be with Him, that the Church is the new Israel as promised in the Old Testament, that Christ is truly the Messiah who was murdered by the Jews for the sins of the world, and that it is only in Christ and following His commandments that He instituted about how he wants to be worshiped, loved, adored, and glorified, that a man will be able to enter through the gates of Heaven.
(Note: Due to the incredible volume of material on the Church and the Jews, I am currently going to focus on the writing and words of the saints, as they are an invaluable example and clear words from noted holy men and women who well reflect the formal position of the Church on the Jews.)
St. Justin Martyr has arguably the oldest document on Christian-Jewish polemics in the Church in his dialogue with a Jew named Trypho. Justin exhorts Trypho to conversion, saying that Christ came for all and his coming was prophesized by Sacred Scripture, but the Jews rejected him out of hatred, and the Gentiles to whom the news of salvation did not originally come have become more faithful than the Jews, and that the Jews are hard-hearted and have open hatred for Christ and all things Christian, but that Christians must pray and seek the conversion of the Jews. He goes through the Old Testament and then the mighty acts of Christ in the New Testament proving that Christ is the Messiah as promised, that Christ is the perfection of all the models set by the saints and great holy men of ancient times among the Hebrews, and that there is no salvation outside of them so all Jewish hopes for salvation that are on their own are in vain, especially the belief that they will be saved because they are blood descendants of Abraham. He also noted that it was the Jews who incited most of the persecutions against the Christians in his day.
“For other nations have not inflicted on us and on Christ this wrong to such an extent as you have, who in very deed are the authors of the wicked prejudice against the Just One, and us who hold by Him. For after that you had crucified Him, the only blameless and righteous Man,– through whose swipes those who approach the Father by Him are healed,–when you knew that He had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, as the prophets foretold He would, you not only did not repent of the wickedness which you had committed, but at that time you selected and sent out from Jerusalem chosen men through all the land to tell that the godless heresy of the Christians had sprung up, and to publish those things which all they who knew us not speak against us. So that you are the cause not only of your own unrighteousness, but in fact of that of all other men. And Isaiah cries justly: ‘By reason of you, My name is blasphemed among the Gentiles.’ And: ‘Woe unto their soul! because they have devised an evil device against themselves, saying, Let us bind the righteous, for he is distasteful to us. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked evil shall be rendered to him according to the works of his hands.’ And again, in other words: ‘Woe unto them that draw their iniquity as with a long cord, and their transgressions as with the harness of a heifer’s yoke: who say, Let his speed come near; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put light for darkness, and darkness for light; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’ Accordingly, you displayed great zeal in publishing throughout all the land bitter and dark and unjust things against the only blameless and righteous Light sent by God.
For He appeared distasteful to you when He cried among you, ‘It is written, My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves!’ He overthrew also the tables of the money-changers in the temple, and exclaimed, ‘Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye pay tithe of mint and rue, but do not observe the love of God and justice. Ye whited sepulchres! appearing beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones.’ And to the Scribes, ‘Woe unto you, Scribes! for ye have the keys, and ye do not enter in yourselves, and them that are entering in ye hinder; ye blind guides!’
(source here for the full dialogue)
St. Irenaeus, the great second-century saint who lived around the time that St. Justin Martyr did, wrote in his book against heresies that while the revelation of God came to Israel, the Jews gave up on God and so God left them, with their grace passing to the Apostles, who went out and converted the entire world both Jew and non-Jew from among all peoples, and that man has free will, for to quote Christ, he who receives the gospel will be saved, but he who does not is condemned.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, having His fan in His hand to cleanse His floor; and He will gather His fruit into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.” For He who makes the chaff and He who makes the wheat are not different persons, but one and the same, who judges them, that is, separates them. But the wheat and the chaff, being inanimate and irrational, have been made such by nature. But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect like to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself the cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff. Wherefore also he shall be justly condemned, because, having been created a rational being, he lost the true rationality, and living irrationally, opposed the righteousness of God, giving himself over to every earthly spirit, and serving all lusts; as says the prophet, “Man, being in honour, did not understand: he was assimilated to senseless beasts, and made like to them. (source here for full context)
St. Hippolytus of Rome, who was martyred by being dragged to death by wild horses for his Catholic faith, writes about the Jews in many places. He says that the scattering of the Jews and the destruction of the Temple was fulfilled because of the rejection of the Messiah, just as how the Original Sin of Adam and Eve affected the whole human race, and just as the condition of sin affects all men, so does the condition of the Jew who persists in holding to the beliefs of those who rejected and murdered God’s son.
For this reason, even up to our day, though they see the boundaries (of their country), and go round about them, they stand afar off. And therefore have they no longer king or high priest or prophet, nor even scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees among them. He does not, however, say that they are to be cut off; wherefore their race still subsists, and the succession of their children is continued. For they have not been cut off nor consumed from among men— but they are and exist still — yet only as those who have been rejected and cast down from the honour of which of old they were deemed worthy by God. But again, Scatter them, he says. by Your power; which word has also come to pass. For they are scattered throughout the whole earth, in servitude everywhere, and engaging in the lowest and most servile occupations, and doing any unseemly work for hunger’s sake.
For if they were destroyed from among men, and remained nowhere among the living, they could not see my people, he means, nor know my Church in its prosperity. Therefore scatter them everywhere on earth, where my Church is to be established, in order that when they see the Church founded by me, they may be roused to emulate it in piety. And these things did the Saviour also ask on their behalf. (source here for context)
Hippolytus also wrote and entire treatise against the Jews, where he describes how the Jews rejected the forgiveness of God given by Christ by their obstinacy and refusal to accept Him, and abusing him instead. (see full document here) (for more examples from Hyppolytus, one can see here)
St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote three books about Judaism, and he said that he wrote them because he “endeavoured to show that the Jews, according to what had before been foretold, had departed from God, and had lost God’s favour, which had been given them in past time, and had been promised them for the future; while the Christians had succeeded to their place, deserving well of the Lord by faith, and coming out of all nations and from the whole world” and to describe “the sacrament of Christ, that He has come who was announced according to the Scriptures, and has done and perfected all those things whereby He was foretold as being able to be perceived and known.” (source here for full books)
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus notes in his second homily about the Blessed Virgin that the reason why God stripped power from the Jews is because “because they used their riches ill and their power lawlessly”, fulfilling the words of the Blessed Virgin in Luke, “He has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.” He says that Israel is “not any Israel in general, indeed, but His servant, who in very deed maintains the true nobility of Israel”, which he links to those men who embrace Christ as Lord and Savior and strive to honor Him. (see his full homily here)
St. Peter I of Alexandria, who was martyred during the Diocletian persecutions, said that “the Jews never erred” when it came to the observation and fulfillment of ritual duties, such as the Sabbath and Passover. He says that the problem was “on account of all their other disobedience, and on account of their evil and unseemly deeds”, which he lists include “turning to idolatry and to fornication”. The issue is not one of people, or legalism, but one of behaviors. (source here)
St. Gregory of Nyssa says that the relationship between the decline of Jerusalem and Jewish power corresponds with the rise of the Messiah, for the fall of the once great city of Jerusalem is to make way for the Heavenly Jerusalem that dwells within each of us, and that those who persisted in following in the old ways, like the city and temple that was destroyed, were scattered throughout the earth. (source here)
St. Hillary of Poitiers warns people not to follow in the example of the Jews, of denying Christ, lest they also be made anathema, for if one believes in the Bible, and he who does not believe in Christ is condemned, what else can be said of the Jews whose religion involves as a necessity the denial of Christ? (source here)
St. John Chrysostom was one of the most famous of all the saints of the ancient world. He was known for a series of homilies he gave against Judaism in which he criticized the fundamental positions of the Church- that Christ came for all, that the Jews murdered him, and that all must convert in order to be saved. He criticized the oldest heresy, which is the trend to Judaizing in the Church (and is the earliest heresy noted in sacred scripture), and how modern Judaism’s rejection of Christ has made it as bad as and worse than paganism, for at least paganism is a genuine search for god for many, while the rejection of Christ is to know God but to choose to rebel against Him, instead returning to the evils of Babylon by choice to the direct opposition of God (source here for a link to the sermons).
St. Maximus of Turin also spoke about the Jews, and in a sermon he noted that while the Jews murdered Christ and they received punishment for it, Christ also prayed for them, and forgave them that if they would convert they too could also be saved:
For when, condemned by the Godless, Christ hung upon the Cross, and the Jews in their evil rage mocked Him they had crucified, in the midst of His agony, this kind Petitioner prayed to His Almighty Father for His executioners, and said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Lk 23:34). And though in His hands was the judgement of both the living and the dead, He implored pardon for those who were then perishing in sin; and this, I believe, that He might show us beyond any manner of doubt, that He forgave them their awful crime, and that His Father would also spare them, if they, putting away their unbelief, would come together in Christ’s Name. For who can doubt the effect of that prayer, where He Who is Goodness asks help for those in misery? They know not, He says, what they do. The Jews knew well that they were shedding the blood of an innocent Man; but they did not know that the guilt of all men was being washed away in that Blood. They knew they were punishing Christ by this most bitter torment of the Cross; but they did not know that it was through this Cross the Son of God would triumph. They knew He would die; but they did not know He would rise again. So, well might the Lord declare: They know not what they do.” (source)
St. Augustine, the great doctor of the Church whose writing have stood throughout the ages, says much the same as the other saints about the punishment of the Jews for murdering Christ, but also adds that God, in the End Times, will see to it that the Jews are given a clear chance to repent, and that many will come to faith in the True Messiah.
It is a familiar theme in the conversation and heart of the faithful, that in the last days before the judgment the Jews shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of this great and admirable prophet Elias who shall expound the law to them. For not without reason do we hope that before the coming of our Judge and Saviour Elias shall come, because we have good reason to believe that he is now alive; for, as Scripture most distinctly informs us,1475 he was taken up from this life in a chariot of fire. When, therefore, he is come, he shall give a spiritual explanation of the law which the Jews at present understand carnally, and shall thus “turn the heart of the father to the son,” ..And the meaning is, that the sons, that is, the Jews, shall understand the law as the fathers, that is, the prophets, and among them Moses himself, understood it. … and that the Jews also, who had previously hated, should then love the Son who is our Christ. For so far as regards the Jews, God has His heart turned away from our Christ, this being their conception about God and Christ. (source)
St. Hugh of Lincoln, not to be confused with Little St. Hugh of Lincoln, was a Catholic bishop who was known being a very good bishop and shepherd of the priests and people in his diocese as well as involved in the controversies of his time. One of the many things that he is known for is for standing up for the rights of the English Jewish community at Lincoln against unjust persecution by people in society, especially at the hands of vigilantes. (source)
St. Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the Church, says that not only did Christ come to preach to the Jews, but that the Jews should, in perfect charity, be criticized harshly because:
It was foretold (Isaiah 8:14) that Christ would be “for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to the two houses of Israel.”
I answer that, The salvation of the multitude is to be preferred to the peace of any individuals whatsoever. Consequently, when certain ones, by their perverseness, hinder the salvation of the multitude, the preacher and the teacher should not fear to offend those men, in order that he may insure the salvation of the multitude. Now the Scribes and Pharisees and the princes of the Jews were by their malice a considerable hindrance to the salvation of the people, both because they opposed themselves to Christ’s doctrine, which was the only way to salvation, and because their evil ways corrupted the morals of the people. For which reason our Lord, undeterred by their taking offense, publicly taught the truth which they hated, and condemned their vices. Hence we read (Matthew 15:12,14) that when the disciples of our Lord said: “Dost Thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized?” He answered: “Let them alone: they are blind and leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.” (source)
Blessed Pope Gregory X defended Jews from unlawful accusations, saying that Jews are people and accusations made against them must be just, for “since it happens occasionally that some Christians lose their Christian children, the Jews are accused by their enemies of secretly carrying off and killing these same Christian children and of making sacrifices of the heart and blood of these very children,” as a result, “inasmuch as the Jews are not able to bear witness against the Christians, we decree furthermore that the testimony of Christians against Jews shall not be valid unless there is among these Christians some Jew who is there for the purpose of offering testimony.” He also criticized them for holding to falsehoods but said they cannot be abused. As he noted, “Jews prefer to persist in their stubbornness rather than to recognize the words of their prophets and the mysteries of the Scriptures and thus arrive at a knowledge of the Christian faith and salvation,” but “no Christian shall stir up anything new against them, but that they should be maintained in that status and position in which they were in the time of our predecessors, from antiquity till now.” (source)
St. Bernardino of Siena, one of the great preachers of the Medieval period, preached equally against Jews, sodomites, and usurers, noting the link between all three. Indeed, this pattern is even visible today, noting the disproportionate representation of Jews in banking and thus usury, as well as the tremendous amount of homosexuality among Jews, so much that Israel is one of the most sodomite-friendly nations in the world.
St. Bernard Clairvaux, one of the great preachers of the Crusaders and evangelists of Church history, said that the Jews have already been punished by their exile, and that Christians are not to unjustly abuse them for being Jews or out of hatred, but will eventually be converted by the grace of God. This is even noted in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
Blessed Juliana of Norwich, in her Revelations of Divine Love, says that in a vision of the Passion, she saw that those who rejected Christ were condemned, including the Jews.
For I had sight of the Passion of Christ in diverse Shewings,–the First, the Second, the Fifth, and the Eighth, wherein I had in part a feeling of the sorrow of our Lady, and of His true friends that saw Him in pain; but I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did Him to death. Notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were accursed and condemned without end, saving those that converted, by grace. And I was strengthened and taught generally to keep me in the Faith in every point, and in all as I had before understood: hoping that I was therein with the mercy and the grace of God; desiring and praying in my purpose that I might continue therein unto my life’s end.” (source text)
St. Pope Pius V, the great pope who instituted the Latin Mass and decreed that it never be changed on pain of sin as well as the one who organized the Holy League and prayed and won a great victory for the Church and peoples of Europe over the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto, also ordered the expulsion of the Jews from all of the Papal states save for the cities of Ancona and Rome, where he said he is doing this because “many by the most disgraceful pandering they precipitate themselves, and that is a most dangerous of all, fortune-telling, incantations, the sorceries and superstitions of the surrender and the occult, as many as the deceptions of Satan”, and that it was to protect “the weak” and “the unwary,” and that they would “abstain from evil deeds, and sometimes men, in sufficient numbers to make use of it happened through encouragement from the past and our own times, the light of truth will acknowledge with joy.” (latin text here).
St. Alfonsus Liguori, one of the great Catholic saints and a doctor of the Church, says that “two false religions specially opposed ours : these were the religion of the Gentiles and that of the Jews,” and he says so because
The religion of the Jews, although formerly holy and revealed by God, was at that time not less manifestly obsolete and false. In fact, in the Scriptures themselves which they had received from God, had preserved with so much care, and had transmitted to us, it was predicted that at a certain time the Sun of God was to come down upon earth, to become man, and to die for he salvation of the world; that they themselves would put him to death on the Cross as they actually did, and that in punishment of this impiety they would be driven from their own kingdom, and without a king, without a temple, without a country, they would live scattered, and be vagabonds throughout the world, abhorred and despised by all nations. These were predictions that were manifestly realized in every particular after the death of the Saviour. (source)
Servant of God Pope Pius XII, in spite of the anti-Christian and perfidious vitriol indented to both slander and libel the name of this man by far too many people today, including Jews, Pius XII was instrumental in standing up to the Nationalists of his time in order to stand for the rights of all peoples in Europe, including Jews. His monumental encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge, was an outright rebuff to the National Socialists, and openly declares that
Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community – however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things – whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds. (source)
Pius XII was directly involved in helping Jews escape persecution, and it is believed that at least a half-a-million Jews were saved from persecution directly due to his efforts. (source)
St. Edith Stein was an atheist Jew who became a Catholic and a nun and was put to death by the Germans during World War II in Auschwitz. She is venerated as one of six patron saints of Europe by the Church, and the reason for this is simple- because the Jews have a long presence in and are a part of Europe, and because the Church does not hate them and does not condemn mistreatment of them, just as with the saints of the past, she wants their conversion and salvation that they would inherit the “double blessing” promised to them in the New Testament instead of a “double curse”, being ones who once had God and then rejected Him and opposed Him as a part of their beliefs. (short biography here)
There were many more saints here who, given the time needed to give a truly in-depth study into the matter, I was not able to discuss. These include men such as St. Isidore of Pelusium, the great apostle to the French St. Remegius, the intellectual Ven. Bede, St. Theophylact of Ohrid, and St. Vincent Ferrer as well as men such as the preacher St. Charles Borromeo or the famous evangelist to Jews St. Raymond of Penyafort, who viciously condemned the evils of the Talmud as was as much of a preacher and holy man as he was a scholar of Aramaic and Arabic.
Something that one finds when one reads about these saints is that in all cases, the strong opposition to Judaism and many of the things that Jews do is something that is based upon a philosophy or actions that one can see and which can be measured, and there is a constant emphasis on that which can be proven versus arbitrary statements.
Let’s take a brief look at this through one of the most controversial topics in Jewish-Christian relations: accusations of blood libel.
In 2009, the Israeli Jewish professor Ariel Toaff published a very controversial book entitled Blood Passover, which was a historical and heroic act because it discussed something that has been a hot-button issue for Christians and Jews, which are the cases of Jewish ritual murders for Cabbalistic rites. Professor Toaff makes clear that there were many cases of what was truly blood libel in that the accusations were objectively false, and innocent Jewish people were put to death. However, at the same time, he notes that it is wrong to say that Jewish ritual murders did not happen because, to the contrary of statements made by Jewish apologists (usually with an anti-Catholic inclination also) that such things never happened, he says that at times there were Jews who did these horrific things.
Such is a very similar position to that which the Church holds, for while the Church in the writings of the saints here makes very clear that Jews are not to be unjustly abused, and it notes that part of such abuse are the false accusations of murdering Christian children or other crimes of a gory nature usually involving some sort of witchcraft. However, the Church also does not deny that such things happen, for there are many child martyrs that while their cults have been in modern times suppressed for the sake of Christian-Jewish dialogue, does not mean that such murders did not happen, such as the murders of St. William of Norwich or St. Simon of Trent. Similar stories of Jewish ritual murders exist and are likewise commemorated in the Orthodox Church, such as St. Gabriel of Bialstok.
One particularly interesting example of such ritual murder was that of a Ukrainian boy named Andrei Yushchinsky, and which the Russian Writer V. Rozanov, a convert to Russian Orthodoxy from Judaism, wrote an entire book (“The Olfactory and Tactile Relationship of Jews to Blood- Обонятельное и осязательное отношение евреям к крови) about the murder describing how it was done in accordance with Cabbalistic ritual sacrifice patterns. The person who was accused of the murder, Menahem Beilis, denied the accusations and further investigations have consistently supported that he told the truth and was innocent. This case is an interesting one because while Beilis was innocent- thus making his accusation a true and unrighteous case of blood libel -it is not blood libel to say that the boy was not ritually murdered in a Cabbalistic rite- it was just that an innocent man was convicted when the real perpetrators were able to avoid their justice due to them. In the words of one Russian source describing the matter:
In fact, the situation was as follows. The jury was asked two questions:
1) Was the boy killed in a ritual?
and
2) Is the Jew Beilis guilty of this murder?
The unequivocal answer “yes” was given to the first question, thus the fact of ritual murders of Christians was once again recognized and condemned. In answering the second question, opinions were divided equally, and in accordance with the gracious laws of the Russian Empire, the charge was rejected.”
The most terrible and at the same time the most effective lie is half-truth. Such a half-truth is the above text. In the first question, the answer to which was “yes, proven,” it was only a question of whether the body was bloodless as a result of the murder and whether this brought suffering to the murdered person.
There is not a word about the ritual purpose in the first question. Only in the second question, which dealt with the possible impulses of the “religious fanaticism” of the defendant, did the ritual aspect sound. But the jury answered the second question – “no, not guilty.” (source)
But noting even a horrible thing such as accusations of such murder, what saint in the Catholic Church- men and women whose lives are models of piety for others to follow- tolerated accusations against people that were not based on fact? Indeed, they did not shirk from seeking justice, but did so only on the basis that claims could be verified, and were quick to condemn the mistreatment of Jews on the basis of arbitrary claims.
Thus when we look to the lives of the saints, we see that they were not afraid to discuss very hard topics about in this case, Judaism and Christianity with both mercy and justice. They did not accept the errors of a religion whose purpose it is to deny Christ, nor did they deny horrible things that could be associated with it. However, they always made sure to see what matters first, which is that as it applies to all people, the Jews, being that they are men, and that all men are made in the image and likeness of God, and that Christ died for all men to have the hope of salvation for those who believe, and that all men have the ability by free will to choose to believe in God as the Kingdom of God is not reserved for any one particular tribe or group but for the people who actively seeks after and does the will of God, that Jews must be extended the same opportunity, for as Christ said in the Bible “if you love only those who love you, what reward shall you have?”.
Likewise, this is also why the saints insisted upon having as much proof as possible before making public declarations of absolute fact about very sensitive matters, such as ritual murders, for while one does not deny that such exists, rather one does not want to make any false accusations against somebody of such a very serious nature without giving a sufficient chance for him to present his case to either confirm or deny them in a serious and evidence-based way.
Right now the world is returning to a period of great extremes in political rhetoric and tribal identity. Such things have consistently been associated with violence and massacres, and this language is being stoked for the purpose of earning money, consolidating power, and ultimately executing eugenics on the “lower” people of the human race, which is basically all men who do not have a lot of money and power and want to commit the sin of Eden again, which is to attempt to become a living “god”, and can be seen a lot in the artificial intelligence movement with “transhumanism” and the blending of humans with computers.
The increase in objectively hateful language against all groups of people, including Jews, is one of these things. What one will notice is that many times, legitimate criticisms of Jews or evils of Judaism are used as a cover for violence and violent rhetoric of a different nature. Indeed, Shoebat.com has pointed out how in spite of the National Socialist criticism of Jews and Judaism, National Socialist philosophy was based on Jewish Cabbalistic philosophy as per Rudolph von Sebottendorf, it was funded by Jewish banks and financiers such as the Stein Bank and the Warburg family, Jews by free choice disproportionately volunteered to serve in the Wehrmacht at much higher rates than Germans, and Jews were heavily involved in propaganda and governance for the National Socialists. Thus in spite of all of the talk about Jews and the true abuse that many Jews suffered at the hands of the National Socialists, the movement was filled with Jews who accepted the National Socialist ideas, which necessarily mean that they were murdering many of their own fellow Jewish kinsmen who were also proportionately poorer or held in a lower social rank alongside many other German and Slavic people, mostly Christians, who perished in the same miserable ways which they did.
While there were Christian people of all denominations who supported the eugenic policies of the National Socialists and helped to carry them out, there were far more who opposed them, and no greater force of opposition to this was the Catholic Church, whose heroic actions saved the lives of tens of thousands in the past and millions of future descendants of Jews, let alone for the many other peoples. Unfortunately, modern propaganda has obscured this fact, and twisted the words of the Church to equivocate her criticism and actions involving Judaism as being part of not a theological impetus or a response to Jewish behavior, but something very wrongly related to the eugenic policies of the National Socialists.
Given that similar patterns are happening again at this time in history, it is critical that people in the Church take an active part in the conversation about the influence and role of Judaism and Jewish philosophy in society, including a discussion of uncomfortable facts and points. This is because the voice of the Church is one of morality that while her members are imperfect, is the true Bride of Christ that seeks the good of all and must speak up in a time when great calamities threaten the human race once again. The good, bad, and ugly about the situation with Jews in society needs to be heard, and the teaching of the Church on the Jews needs to be loudly proclaimed without fear of social repercussion because without doing this, it is impossible to have an honest discussion about the problems that the human family faces and how to find a resolution to them without resorting to violence. If the problems are not discussed, than statements will proliferate, including many factual ones, that will be intentionally distorted to promote violence and a war that will lead to the deaths of many.
The saints of the Church were not “anti-semitic” because they did not hate people for racial reasons. They sought the good will of all, and since God desires that all are able to attain Heaven, that Christ is the one and true way, that nobody comes to the Father except through Christ, and that the Jews reject Christ, the largest base of criticism of the Jews is rooted out of an Evangelical love for their salvation. Other criticisms come from actions of Jewish behavior that can be measured and proven and which need to be addressed. Finally, they always admonish people not to hate Jews or to make false charges against them, but to be good to them, to be honest about them, and to examine all cases with the same honesty and objectivity that a Christian would receive.
Such men are models for all Christians to follow throughout the ages, and this is why these men are counted among the ranks of the saints.
It is not un-Christian to criticize Judaism or Jewish behavior, as there is much that is worthy and in need of criticism for the sake of mercy and justice. There is no better example to follow in this criticism than that of the example of the saints, for their balance enables us to see the good as well as the bad, to balance our responses with charity, and to always offer the hand of mercy, even if it is difficult or long-suffering, before following through with the hammer of justice. If Christ will be patient and long-suffering with fellow Christians, how much more are Christians to follow in the example of Christ and be long-suffering with others for their salvation.