Guardians of memory

Catholics and Jews should be “guardians of remembrance” because, after the tragedy of the Holocaust, “today we do know the whole dimension of unfathomable evil. A dimension that must not be diminished by anyone”. So spoke today Card. Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, in the Polish city along with Rabbi David Rosen to open the International Conference promoted by the “Jesuit Center for Culture and dialogue” titled “The Catholic-Jewish Dialogue: Where We Have Come, Where We Need To Go”. Follow extracts of the address delivered by Cardinal Dziwisz. The responsibility of Poland. The Archbishop recalled the “darkest page in the Jewish history”, the Holocaust, “leading to an attempt to erase entire Jewish people from the surface of the Earth”. He added: “Hitler designated Polish soil to be the place of his genocide. This land which Poles and Jews inhabited together, for better and for worse, during almost one thousand years, became a grave for millions of Jews at the hands of the Nazis”. It is in this very country, in Poland, that Benedict XVI, in presence of the representatives of Jewish organisations, has recently prayed that “memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews”. As “sons and daughters of our Polish land, we are aware that this papal call to remember concerns us in a particular way”. “We should be and want to be the guardians of remembrance”.The duty to never forget. “We are aware of the obligation which is upon us, to eternally mourn our Jewish neighbours whose innocent blood soaked our soil.” “More than anything else, we want to remember the Shoah of our Jewish sisters and brothers in order to think with respect about Jews living today. Above all, the voices of victims of the Holocaust remind us that despite differences we are brothers and sisters. We desire to open our conscience to allow in the voice of these innocent victims reminding us that all of us human beings are mutually responsible for the fate of our brother and sister, our neighbour. We want to remember the Holocaust in order to built brotherly relations between Christians and Jews.”Dialogue: the new name of love. “John Paul II encouraged the entire Church to bravely acknowledge her past mistakes and open a new chapter, also in the relationship with the Jews”, the archbishop recalled. “Today also the Polish Church wishes to follow the example set by John Paul II and bravely uncover and reject all those elements that separate our lives from the Gospel”. “God calls us to erect bridges and establish an environment of communion in the world and not to create divisions or revive resentments”, His Eminence declared. “Paul VI said dialogue is “the new name of love”. “This is why we are ashamed that in spite of the unquestionable teachings of recent Popes on the just relationship between Christians and Jews, many of us are unable to overcome prejudice, embittered resentment and harmful stereotyping”, he affirmed.Courage and determination. Recalling the words pronounced by John Paul II in the Rome synagogue “we are like brothers who have found each other after a very long time”, the Archbishop said: “it is the situation in which we are today. Since we have found each other only recently, we know too little about each other, we trust each other too little.” “We need great courage, determination and wisdom not to be slowed down in creating this new brotherhood by breaches committed by individuals or groups on both sides”, continued the Archbishop. The invitation is addressed to the partners in the dialogue so that they may also count on the “commitment of the many people of good will who do a lot for the cause of rapprochement, people who often feel themselves hurt by declarations or actions of some of their fellow-believers”, said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.