Christian Attitudes

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6791421,00.html

More than 700 people in Poland, including a former prime minister and foreign minister, signed an open letter condemning statements about Jews by a right-wing Roman Catholic priest who runs a controversial radio station.

Only 700? Still, enough to make the Guardian pay attention, and it seems there are some high profile names among them.

``As Polish Catholics, laymen and clergy, we express our moral protest against the worsening statements of the director of Radio Maryja,'' the letter says. ``It hurts us that the contemptible and anti-Semitic statements come from a representative of our church.''

The letter, posted on the Web site of the Krakow-based Center for Culture and Dialogue, calls on Roman Catholic Church leaders to bring Rydzyk in line with church teaching that anti-Semitism is a sin.

Rydzyk is a member of the Redemptorist order. An official who answered the phone at the Redemptorists' headquarters in Rome "would not comment. Calls to the order's office in Warsaw went unanswered."

Rydzyk's religious superiors are Redemptorists, not his local Bishop in Poland (although the latter should protest about him to the Redemptorist leadership). You can contact their headquarters here.