Cordoba, Spain, Jun 7, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Both Jews and Christians must have a clear understanding of history in order to advance in their relationship and ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are not repeated, said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver.
The archbishop was speaking at a conference on anti-Semitism in Cordoba, Spain, June 8. The conference was held as a simultaneous event to the summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The archbishop said Catholics are concerned about the Holocaust as the “central human tragedy of our time” and as “a religious catastrophe in which millions of people who claimed to be Christians enabled, colluded in or ignored mass murder.
“Since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has called on Catholics to examine and purify their memories of history; to reconnect with the Jewish roots of their faith and, where possible, to seek to repair relations with the Jewish people,” he said.