The Attitude of the Catholic Church toward the Jews: An Outline of a Turbulent History

The practice of imprisoning Jews in ghettos and marking them out with special signs (as was introduced by Pius vi in the Papal States, inter alia, in 1775) is associated more with the Nazism of the Third Reich than with the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Church maintained its policy of per...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Numen
Authors: Szocik, Konrad (Author) ; Walden, Philip L. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2017
In: Numen
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Catholic church, Sancta Sedes / Anti-judaism / Vatican Council 2. (1962-1965 : Vatikanstadt) / History 1751-2004
RelBib Classification:BH Judaism
CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations
CG Christianity and Politics
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KCB Papacy
KCC Councils
KDB Roman Catholic Church
Further subjects:B Anti-semitism anti-Judaism Roman Catholic Church Jews the Papal States the Vatican
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:The practice of imprisoning Jews in ghettos and marking them out with special signs (as was introduced by Pius vi in the Papal States, inter alia, in 1775) is associated more with the Nazism of the Third Reich than with the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Church maintained its policy of perfidis Judaeis until the beginning of the 1960s, when it was stopped by Vatican ii, probably because of the pressure of social and political factors. This topic is, however, difficult to explain, often very controversial, and subject to many different interpretations. Here we show that anti-Semitic ideas were present in the Church before Vatican ii, and that they have a religious, theological, and philosophical background. We discuss those interpretations which, in an ideological sense, connect anti-Semitism in the Church with the genocidal anti-Semitism of the Third Reich. This article underlines the revolutionary change in the Church’s attitude toward Jews in Vatican ii, a change caused primarily by the Holocaust.
ISSN:1568-5276
Contains:In: Numen
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341460