Christian Attitudes

Tired of ignorant Irish bishops likening Gaza to a prison? Or prejudiced German bishops comparing Jewish self-defence to Nazi behaviour?

Let us recall some good Catholics. The German bishops who likened Israel to their own Nazi forebears might learn a lesson from this Polish woman. Irena Sendler was among their victims.

Irena Sendler saved nearly 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis, organizing a ring of 20 Poles to smuggle them out of the Warsaw Ghetto in baskets and ambulances.

The Nazis arrested her, but she didn’t talk under torture. After she survived the war, she expressed regret - for doing too little.

The German Catholic bishops should humbly note the following detail.

Lawmakers in Poland’s Senate disagreed Wednesday, unanimously passing a resolution honoring her and the Polish underground’s Council for Assisting Jews, of which her ring of mostly Roman Catholics was a part.

Reminder: the bishops were not even brave enough to criticize Israel while they were there, but waited until they were safely in the land of her enemies.
It took additional courage for these Polish Catholics to do so much for Jews, not just in the face of Nazi dangers, but threats from fellow Poles.

Allegations of anti-Semitism in Poland have continued to the present day.

Kaczynski’s government has been chided for its coziness with Roman Catholic Radio Maryja, which aired a commentary last year accusing Jews of ”trying to force our government to pay extortion money disguised as compensation payments” for property lost during World War II, saying it was part of a ”Holocaust business.”

Poland’s chief rabbi was punched and attacked with what appeared to be pepper spray in downtown Warsaw last year in what police said may have been an anti-Semitic attack.

And let us not forget the heroic Odoardo Focherini.

The Catholic journalist Odoardo Focherini saved more than 100 Jews before he died in a concentration camp during World War II, at the age of 37.

He was remembered recently by the Catholic Union of the Italian Press on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. "The journalist was the administrative director of L'Avvenire d'Italia and president of the Italian segment of Catholic Action."

Focherini organized a network to move Jews out of Italy to safety in Switzerland. He was arrested for this on March 11, 1944. After stops in several prisons, he died from an infected leg wound on Dec. 27, 1944, in the Hersbruck concentration camp in Germany