The Holocaust reminds us that violence cannot acheive brotherhood, Pope says

Vatican City, Jan 28, 2009 / 09:55 am

People around the world celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, and Pope Benedict added his voice to the commemorations by reflecting on the Shoah at today’s general audience. The tragedy of the Holocaust should remind men that dialogue, love and forgiveness are the only way to true brotherhood and peace, the Pope said.

The Holocaust should serve as “an admonition against oblivion, negation and reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all," the Holy Father cautioned.

Noting that yesterday was the day on which ceremonies were held to remember the Holocaust and its victims, Pope Benedict recalled that he too has visited Auschwitz, where "millions of Jews were cruelly massacred, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hatred.”

"As I once again affectionately express my full and indisputable solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters who received the First Covenant," the Pope continued, "I trust that the memory of the Shoah will induce humankind to reflect upon the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the heart of man."

The lesson that should be drawn from the Holocaust is for both “old and new generations,” and this lesson is that “only the arduous path of listening and dialogue, of love and forgiveness, can lead peoples, cultures and religions of the world to the longed-for goal of fraternity and peace, in truth," Benedict XVI said. 

"May violence never again humiliate man's dignity," he prayed.