From our Pastors
Over the past eight years, there have been a dozen violent attacks on synagogues in the United States resulting in serious injury, damage and even deaths. The most recent as on January 15, 2022, when a gunman entered Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, during Shabbat morning services. After a ten-hour standoff with various authorities, the hostage taker, died at the scene. All four hostages were released, apparently unharmed. On Friday, January 21, Fr. Michael and Fr. Mark joined other clergy from the Brooklyn Heights Interfaith Clergy Association to pray and stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue.
Catholics in the US are no strangers to being on the receiving end of painful and even deadly religious bigotry. From the earliest days of the colonies, Catholics were initially forbidden and then grudgingly admitted but often did not enjoy the full rights of colonists. Even “Catholic” Maryland, which had ensured the religious liberty of all colonists, found voting and property rights suppressed for nearly fifty years following the “Glorious Revolution” in England. Nativist movements, bias against Catholic immigrants and the hatred of the KKK reverberated loudly in the United State until the election of John F. Kennedy as president. Since then, the religious bias against Catholics, while lessened, still persists.
There have been at least 95 reported incidents of vandalism of Catholic churches across the United States since May 2020, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty. Incidents include arson, the destruction of statues, and the defacement of church buildings and gravestones with swastikas and anti-Catholic language. Fortunately, there were no injuries or deaths in these attacks.
Antisemitism is alive and flourishing in many places. “Sometimes antisemitism is blatant and unmissable, like the crowd in Charlottesville, VA chanting ‘Jews will not replace us!’ Other times it is more subtle, taking the form of language which dehumanizes Jewish people or presents them as a threat or as an ‘other’. It can take the form of conspiracy theories which paint Jews as global elites or members of secret cabals seeking to undermine society. It can take the form of ethno-nationalism forces that led to the Holocaust and other historic violence. It can also take the form of interpersonal bullying, repeating and amplifying antisemitic tropes or stereotypes.” (J Street, July 2021)
Since the Second Vatican Council overwhelmingly approved the document Nostra aetate ("In our time”) which Pope Paul promulgated in October of 1965, the Catholic Church has endeavored to renounce our part in antisemitic actions, mindsets and practices. As the targets of painful religious bias against our own faith, we must continue to develop our allyship with our Jewish neighbors, friends and colleagues. Pope Francis reminded us that the sufferings of our Jewish sisters and brothers are our sufferings when he visited the Jewish community in Slovakia in September 2021. “Dear brothers and sisters, your history is our history, your sufferings are our sufferings. In this
place, our histories meet once more. Here let us affirm together before God our willingness to persevere on the path of reconciliation and friendship.” So may it be for us as we stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in our Brooklyn communities.
Fr. Michael Callaghan, c.o. and Fr. Mark Lane, c.o.
