Catholics create guide for teaching Shoah in school

Friday, March 23, 2001 | by

NEIL RUBIN

BALTIMORE—Catholic schools throughout the country can now turn to the first blueprint for Holocaust educational resources from a Catholic perspective. The publication, "Catholic Teaching on the Shoah: Implementing the Holy See's 'We Remember,'" is an outgrowth of a 1999 conference in Baltimore between the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the American Jewish Committee.

The 27-page booklet, printed by the National Conference, will be implemented in Catholic high schools, Baltimore Archbishop Cardinal William H. Keeler said this week.

The work surpassed the 1998 "We Remember" declaration by Pope John Paul II because it includes material about the pontiff's visit to Israel last spring, the cardinal added. Indeed, the new booklet's cover is a black-and-white photograph of the pontiff placing a prayer for peace in Jerusalem's Western Wall and it begins with the pope's address at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Museum.

In "We Remember," the pope said, "We wish to turn awareness of past sins into a firm resolve to build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians."

The booklet is most likely to be used in high schools because "that's where the young people have a greater reflective ability and are interested in this," Keeler said. It is available immediately for teachers already exploring the Holocaust, he added.

"Catholic Teaching on The Shoah" is being promoted on Catholic Web sites and in newsletters. Schools can purchase it for $2.95 a copy, with bulk rates for 50 copies or more.

The work is the latest step in the now 22-year-long reign of John Paul II to push Catholic leaders—and by extension their followers—into wrestling with the church's role and theological responsibility during the Holocaust years.

Jewish educators were shown drafts of the work in progress, but it clearly treads on emotional ground for Jews. At one point, it reads : "The popes [throughout history] could be and often were successfully appealed to by Jewish communities when local civil authorities attempted to abuse them."

But two paragraphs later, it adds: "But Christian anti-Judaism did lay the groundwork for racial, genocidal anti-Semitism by stigmatizing not only Judaism but Jews themselves for opprobrium and contempt. So the Nazi theories tragically found fertile soil in which to plan the horror of an unprecedented attempt at genocide."

The cardinal said: "It's a Catholic document and we have presented it to help our people, but it is unusual in that we had so much input from the Jewish side."

In a section on recommended courses, there is a brief breakdown of "Prior History Jewish-Christian Relations" and "Aftermath of the Shoah: Efforts to Respond." A bibliography of resources lists church teachings on the Holocaust, "the Shoah and religious reflection," Web sites and films.

"Catholic Teaching on The Shoah" brings two new aspects to existing material for Catholics, the cardinal said. "First it brings everything together under one umbrella, and it adds the authority of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops."

The cardinal spoke on behalf of the booklet at a fall 2000 meeting at which the National Conference approved of the work. "I assure you," Keeler said, "that the motion passed unanimously."