Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has urged Christians to actively support and protect Jewish-Australians under attack from “the violent and senseless attitude which goes by the name of anti-Semitism”. Source: The Australian.
After dozens of anti-Semitic attacks across the country and terror plots targeting the Jewish community, the Perth Archbishop has issued a call to arms for all Australians to join the fight against “pernicious and destructive” anti-Semitism.
Archbishop Costelloe said the country was confronting a “deeply unpalatable truth that for some in our society the notion of tolerance and respect for each other should not include our Jewish brothers and sisters”.
“It is a cause for shame that places of Jewish worship are being firebombed; that Jewish schools and other institutions are forced to engage security firms; that university students are afraid to be on campus in case they are verbally or physically abused; that Jewish homes and cars are defaced by vile graffiti,” he said.
“All purportedly in the name of peace and justice but in reality as an expression of that senseless hatred for the Jewish people which, when once it went unchecked in Europe, resulted in the brutal horrors of the Holocaust.”
The intervention by Archbishop Costelloe comes after Sydney Catholic, Anglican and Greek Orthodox archbishops in January issued a joint call rejecting the “normalisation of hatred” based on religious beliefs and the “seriously misguided” use of the actions of the Israel Defence Forces to justify attacks on Australians Jews and synagogues.
Since the high-level faith leaders’ declaration, there has been a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, including a firebombing of a Sydney childcare centre and a foiled terror attack following the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives.
Archbishop Costelloe, who was appointed to lead the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in 2022, said “in his teaching, Jesus insists that everyone is our neighbour … that is the point of his parable of the good Samaritan”.
FULL STORY
Top Catholic urges Christians to protect Jewish-Australians against ‘destructive’ anti-Semitism (By Geoff Chambers, The Australian)
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Catholic leader calls for community action on anti-Semitism (The Australian)
