International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Jubilee Year| National Catholic Register

COMMENTARY: Pope St. John XXIII was central to maintaining the memory of World War II’s persecuted Jews.

This year is a jubilee year. Focusing on the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” Pope Francis in the bull of indiction for the Jubilee Year, Spes Non Confundit (Hope Does Not Disappoint), calls Catholics everywhere to give witness to the hope that is within them (1 Peter 3:15):  

“Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it. May the way we live our lives say to them in so many words: ‘Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart, and hope in the Lord!’” (Psalm 27:14).  

The new year is also filled with many significant anniversaries, most notably the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. This year will also see two other important anniversaries: On Jan. 27, the world will recall the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps via the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Then, on Oct. 28, the Church will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of Nostra Aetate, the “Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions” at the Second Vatican Council.  

Surprisingly to some, these anniversaries are related in several ways, not the least of which is the person and history of Pope St. John XXIII. This is a story worth knowing and telling. 

John XXIII Aided Jews 

Before his ascendency to the papacy in 1958, Angelo Roncalli was a member of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps and later patriarch of Venice. As a young priest, Father Roncalli served as his bishop’s secretary, a military chaplain, and a spiritual director for seminarians. Called to Rome, he was soon assigned to the diplomatic corps serving in Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and, finally, France.  

During this time of diplomatic service, as Adolf Hitler’s Germany became dominant over most of continental Europe, he had to deal with the horrors of National Socialism and its systematic persecution and killing of Jewish persons and others considered “undesirable” (many of them Catholic). As apostolic delegate, the future pope was responsible for rescuing many Jews in Eastern Europe and Turkey by the issuing of baptismal certificates and other documents that kept some from being deported to the extermination camps. Despite these efforts, there were many thousands he could not save. 

Later, when he became pope and had called for an ecumenical council, John XXIII let it be known that he wished for a document on Christian and Jewish relations.  

Father René Laurentin wrote that this papal desire “… had deep roots in his heart: his memory of the persecuted Jews and the powerlessness of an apostolic delegate in Istanbul, who could render no more than limited individual assistance.”  

One of the Council cardinals wrote: “John XXIII had come to know the distress and the mortal anguish of the Jews fleeing from their persecutors. … He felt an urgent desire to set against the immeasurable and bottomless hate of those days a lasting word of love.” 

John XXIII did not live to see the final draft of what became Nostra Aetate. But his efforts to ensure that the Council fathers addressed the grave sin of antisemitism endured. They ended up expanding their reflections to include other non-Christian religions, teaching that the grace of God is not limited to visible members of the Catholic Church but extends beyond to all men and women of goodwill.  

But for many, Nostra Aetate is best known for its official Catholic teaching on our relationship with our Jewish brothers and sisters (later called by Pope St. John Paul II our “elder brothers in faith”). Nostra Aetate teaches, as Rabbi Eric Greenberg of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote on its 50th anniversary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that “…anti-Semitism [is] a sin against God at any time or place.” Rabbi Greenberg also noted that the declaration “… affirms the continuing validity of God’s covenant with Moses and the Jewish people and calls for greater respect and understanding between Catholics and Jews. Nostra Aetate rejects the false deicide claim that all Jews are responsible for the Death of Jesus.”  

These teachings remain important for our day, especially with the exponential rise in acts of antisemitism worldwide. For example, in the United States, Jewish persons and institutions have been prone recently to attack from both the political far left (especially on college campuses) and far right (antisemitic hate groups and persons). The University of Tel Aviv and the Anti-Defamation League’s annual report on antisemitism for 2023 indicates an alarming number of hate crimes against Jews. 

Committing to ‘Never Again’ 

These teachings also remain relevant because they are rooted in the fundamental truths of the Gospel, like the dignity of all human beings and the right to religious liberty. Unfortunately, some who claim to be believers would dismiss or diminish these teachings as “policy” or “diplomacy” rather than see them as essential aspects of our faith. 

They are also vitally important because humanity continues to fall into the trap of hatred, revenge and ethnic and religious persecution. After the Shoah of 1933-1945, there was a virtual unanimous opinion worldwide that genocide must never happen again.  The phrase “Never again” became a slogan of a universal commitment to a better way. 

But, quite frankly, we have turned our eyes away from many pogroms and persecutions that can only be described as genocides. We must truthfully decry the many mass murders that have happened since 1945. The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Cambodia (1975-79), Rwanda (1994), East Pakistan/Bangladesh (1971), East Timor (1975-99), Guatemala (1962-96), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-95), Myanmar (2016-25), Sudan and South Sudan (2003-25) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1996-2025) are just some of the obvious examples. All rise to the level of genocide and/or crimes against humanity. More could be named, and some are ongoing, not the least of which is the scourge of millions of abortions each year in many parts of the world, including the U.S. 

If we are indeed called to be pilgrims of hope, to give witness to God’s love for all peoples, then we must pray and work for universal peace based on human rights and social justice. In his statement for World Peace Day on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Jan. 1) this year, Pope Francis called all of us “… to seek to establish the liberating justice of God in our world.” The way towards a true tranquility of order that is a lasting peace among peoples and nations is this justice. As St. Paul VI taught, “If you want peace, work for justice.”