Pope Leo: “May horror of genocide never again be inflicted upon any people.”
At the conclusion of the General Audience, Pope Leo recalls International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed on 27 January [2026], and invokes “the gift of a world without antisemitism,” free from prejudice, oppression, and persecution, and founded on “mutual respect and the common good.” Pope Leo issued an impassioned appeal against hatred during his weekly General […]
Viktor Frankl and Man’s Search for Meaning.
In 1942, Nazi guards stripped a psychiatrist of everything—his coat, his name, his life’s work—but they accidentally gave him the one discovery that would change millions of lives. The guards at the concentration camp intake made a calculation. They shaved the 37-year-old man’s head. They tattooed a number on his skin: 119,104. Then they found […]
Antisemitism and Henry Ford’s “The International Jew”
Henry Ford (1863-1947 was the founder of Ford Motor Company. He was one of the most respected and innovative business leaders in American history. Ford used his position and wealth to promote hatred of Jews. He owned an influential newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, that spread antisemitic ideas to American readers. Antisemitism is prejudice against or […]
Anti-Semitism and the Catholic Relationship with the Jewish Community
Antisemitism is the prejudice against or hatred of Jewish people. It is a form of bigotry and racism. For centuries, antisemites have demonized and dehumanized Jews by spreading antisemitic tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracy theories. Antisemitism is a set of hateful beliefs and ideas about Jews and the Jewish religion, Judaism. It is based on old […]
Nazi Slander of Catholic priests
Massimo Introvigne In 1937 propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels organized a campaign to discredit the Catholic Church after Pope Pius XI severely criticized the Nazi regime. “There are cases of sexual abuse that come to light every day against a large number of members of the Catholic clergy. Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of individual cases, […]
Man’s Search for Meaning
Fr. Paul Pecchie The thought of death can be a powerful inspiration for living a fuller life. Victor Frankl survived the Nazi concentration camps by thinking about death. He had been one of Sigmund Freud’s most promising protégés. Then World War II broke out, and he found himself rounded up with his fellow Viennese Jews […]
Midwife at Auschwitz
Matthew M. Anger The Gates of Auschwitz: “Work Makes One Free” The Story of Stanislawa Leszczynska If anything can be said of accusations against the Catholic Church in World War II it is that they are as predictable as they are monotonous. Far more interesting (and revealing) is the heroism of thousands of ordinary Catholics […]
RESPONSE TO ACCUSATIONS AGAINST PIUS XII
Myth vs Historical Fact Fr Pierre Blet, S.J. Text from: L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, v31, n17(1539), 29 April 1998.[orginally published in Italian in the 21 March 1998 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica.] When he died on 9 October 1958, Pius XII was the object of unanimous tributes of admiration and gratitude: “The world”, President Eisenhower declared, […]
The Nazi’s T-4
Euthanasia Program This poster reads: “This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community of the people 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Comrade, that is your money, too. Read ‘New People’, the monthly magazine of the political-race office of the Nazi party.” In the fall of 1939 the German government established, under the Reich Chancellery, […]
The History of Yiddish
Yiddish originated in Germany but was eventually spoken by Jews all over Europe. Mordecai Walfish Yiddish in the 20th Century In its 1,000-plus-year history, the Yiddish language has been called many things, including the tender name mameloshen (mother tongue), the adversarial moniker zhargon (jargon) and the more matter-of-fact Judeo-German. What is Yiddish? Literally speaking, Yiddish means “Jewish.” Linguistically, it […]