Catholic Transcript Online

On Tuesday afternoon, April 18, I participated in a media conference to denounce the desecration of the Holocaust Memorial outside Chabad House in West Hartford.

On Easter Sunday morning, April 16, a swastika was discovered painted on the Memorial. It was expeditiously erased by the staff at Chabad House. On Tuesday morning, April 18, another swastika appeared on the Memorial. Thus we had the media conference that afternoon. A number of public officials and Jewish religious leaders, from the State and from West Hartford, took part.

I denounced the desecrations as "despicable, ugly, heinous acts." It was relatively easy to remove the swastikas. The Memorial is a solid granite monument and the paint does not permanently adhere to it. These actions sear our souls, however, and rattle the conscience of society.

This year we mark the 61^st anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps in Europe. The years must not bedim the memory. To remember is to give life, to forget is to let die. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his visit to Germany last summer spoke of the Holocaust, the Shoah, as the "unspeakable and previously unimaginable crime." He quoted Pope John Paul II: "I bow my head before all those who experienced this manifestation of the mysterium iniquitatis (mystery of iniquity)." The terrible events of that time must "never cease to raise consciences, to resolve conflicts, to inspire the building of peace."

I have visited the concentration camps of Dachau and Auschwitz-Birchenau. To touch the ovens of Dachau, to see the gas chambers, to walk the remains of Auschwitz-Birchenau and witness devastation, emptiness, the desert of the human spirit as far as one can see, is to know something of the overwhelming terror and horror of human evil.

Yes, Christians and others were killed in the millions, but we cannot ignore the unique character of the Shoah. To be confronted with the vastness of Auschwitz-Birchenau is to realize how serious was the Nazi attempt to eliminate an entire people. Some estimates indicate that perhaps 40 percent of the Jewish population in the world was eliminated. That is a statistic, but to read and to hear, on tape, the individual stories of the victims, is to be moved forever.

Our reactions are important. Pope Benedict XVI has stated that it was in the face of the brutality of the Nazi regime that his vocation to the priesthood was strengthened.

These acts stir us to renewal in our quest for authentic personal goodness, experienced in the inner recesses of our hearts, our internal sanctuaries, as well as in the public square, the public forum.

We can be shocked by evil, but we cannot be paralyzed. It is our sacred duty never to forget, but also to move forward to fight bigotry, bias, and prejudice with passion. It is our religious responsibility to defend and support the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable wherever they may be.

There are new signs of anti-Semitism in various parts of the world these days. At the same time we must recognize the significant progress made in the last 61 years, and particularly in the last 41 years since the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration, Nostra Aetate ("In Our Time"). That document opened up new visions for Jewish-Christian relations, as well as Muslim-Christian relations and relations with followers of other religions. Much progress has been made during this time in dialogue and solidarity, particularly in Jewish-Catholic collaboration.

I have offered our support to Rabbi Joseph Gopin of Chabad House, and renewed it. It is one more step in the work which must continue.