Papal envoy criticizes anti-Semitic radio broadcast
-09/04/06
The Papal Nuncio in Wars
Papal envoy criticizes anti-Semitic radio broadcast
-09/04/06
The Papal Nuncio in Warsaw, Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, has written to Polish bishops urging them to reprimand and control a Catholic radio station which has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements.
According to Dan Bergin of Independent Catholic News, the station, Radio Maryja, made a broadcast in which they claimed that Jewish people were generating an ëindustryí out of Holocaust reparations.
In the course of a broadcast on 27 March 2006, the radio station’s presenter, Stanislaw Michalkiewicz, accused Jews of “trying to force our government to pay extortion money disguised as ‘compensation payments'” for property lost during and after the Second World War.
Then on 6 April, Polish newspapers published a letter from Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, in which he urged the government to close down the radio station because of its “xenophobia, chauvinism and anti-Semitism.”
Monsignor Kowalczyk wrote in his subsequent letter to the countryís Catholic bishops: “The Holy See expresses its deep concern about Radio Maryja’s political commitments.”
He urged the bishops to “overcome the difficulties caused by some of the radio’s broadcasts and activities.”
The continuing growth of anti-Semitism in Europe and beyond is a major concern for Jewish leaders, human rights activists and their secular and religious allies.
The late Pope John Paul II placed a major emphasis on Christian-Jewish relations during his pontificate, and his successor Benedict XVI has continued to foster these positive relations.
Papal envoy criticizes anti-Semitic radio broadcast
-09/04/06
The Papal Nuncio in Warsaw, Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, has written to Polish bishops urging them to reprimand and control a Catholic radio station which has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements.
According to Dan Bergin of Independent Catholic News, the station, Radio Maryja, made a broadcast in which they claimed that Jewish people were generating an ëindustryí out of Holocaust reparations.
In the course of a broadcast on 27 March 2006, the radio station’s presenter, Stanislaw Michalkiewicz, accused Jews of “trying to force our government to pay extortion money disguised as ‘compensation payments'” for property lost during and after the Second World War.
Then on 6 April, Polish newspapers published a letter from Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, in which he urged the government to close down the radio station because of its “xenophobia, chauvinism and anti-Semitism.”
Monsignor Kowalczyk wrote in his subsequent letter to the countryís Catholic bishops: “The Holy See expresses its deep concern about Radio Maryja’s political commitments.”
He urged the bishops to “overcome the difficulties caused by some of the radio’s broadcasts and activities.”
The continuing growth of anti-Semitism in Europe and beyond is a major concern for Jewish leaders, human rights activists and their secular and religious allies.
The late Pope John Paul II placed a major emphasis on Christian-Jewish relations during his pontificate, and his successor Benedict XVI has continued to foster these positive relations.