(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What Now Needs To Be Said of Catholicism and anti-Semitism [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-01 “Perhaps it is the will of God that this aeon there should be diversity in our forms of devotion and commitment to Him. In this aeon diversity of religious is the will of God.” -Abraham Joshua Heschel, No Religion Is An Island As an American Catholics, I must speak to the rise of those alarming increase in anti-Semitism. This message is directed specifically towards those who use their Catholicism to justify hatred of our Jewish brothers and sisters. I also want to highlight as well as those who would have the laws of the United States based upon Catholic doctrine, such as White supremacist, Holocaust denier and Trump dinner guest Nick Fuentes. To Fuentes, is also known for his open disdain for democracy. He is on record stating: “You know what democracy has given us? Obesity. Low rates of literacy. It’s given us divorce, abortion, gay marriage, liberalism, pornography. That’s what democracy has given us. Ghettos and crime and political correctness. Diversity. Yeah, the track record of democracy? Not so good. Catholic autocracy? Pretty strong. Pretty strong record. Catholic monarchy? Catholic monarchy, and just war, and crusades, and inquisitions? Pretty good stuff.” To those such as Fuentes, that would weaponize Catholicism into an instrument of divisiveness and hatred, I remind my co-religionists: THAT Jesus, the Holy Family, and His original followers lived not as Catholics but as Jews. The Holy Family and His Apostles lived as Jews. The works of St. John the Baptist have its origins in the Jewish rite of Mikvah (spiritual purification by immersion in water). Likewise, the original Chalice was a Kiddush Cup, the first Communion bread was matzo being that the Last Supper was undeniably a Passover Seder. THAT When Jesus was crucified by the Romans – as were thousands of other Jews thought to be a threat to the Empire – the prayer said for Him at His death was Kaddish. THAT as we have been taught by Nostra Aetate (In Our Time - Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian religions), "what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today." THAT if Jesus had come of age in 1930s Germany instead of almost 2,000 years earlier in Judea and Galilee, as a Jew His death would have been in a gas chamber or by the Shoah of bullets instead of on the Cross. THAT these truths can only lead us to a single conclusion: Anti-Semitism is at the very least anti-Catholic but also a sin against humanity, and it a sin against God. Which brings us to the matter of Catholic integralism (the advocacy for for an authoritarian and an anti-pluralist Catholic government), which is advocated by Nick Fuentes and his movement. THAT Catholic integralism is not religious freedom but theocracy and religious supremacy. As such, it is a direct threat to American democracy and domestic tranquility. THAT with regard to other faiths, Nostra Aetate unequivocally states: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings, which though different in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of truth which enlightens all men.” THAT Judaism, from the faith of Jesus and His earliest followers to the current day, is that “ray of truth which enlightens all men.” Catholic integralism would gravely dim and distort that ray of truth. THAT integralism recalls an intolerant and strident period of Catholicism’s long history. As such, any call for Catholic theology to replace American secular law smacks of Torquamada and Inquisition, not of the lesson of tolerance and good will taught to us in the parable of the Good Samaritan. As Roger Williams, theologian then of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations declared in 1636, “Forced Worship Stinks In God's Nostrils.” Whenever government is coopted to be any creed’s enforcer it indicates doubt and weakness. Theocracy and religious authoritarianism as such violates every citizen’s freedom of conscience. Catholic integralism – and White supremacy, as advocated by Nick Fuentes and others, emits the foulest of odors in the nostrils of our Lord. It is a doctrine of mortal sin that will result in the cruelty, hatred and violence of Inquisitions past. The very concept of integralism clashes with the way of Jesus who never coopted government to evangelize. Therefore, to the rest of us let all Catholic seekers of truth and goodwill, and all of us who recognize the values of religious freedom, pluralism, and separation of church and state rise as defenders of the faith, the faith of others, and as defenders of democracy. It is our time. 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