Breaking news: Jesus was a Jew. His mother was a Jew, too.
And: Antisemitism is a “deep and dangerous” evil.
No level of infantile humor or justification or false sense of courage can erase that.
“Scapegoating Jews is the coward’s way out,” Dominican priest Father Patrick Briscoe says in this brief video, taking on the insanely evil groyper antisemitism culture. He both makes sense of why young men are getting sucked in and unequivocally condemns it — and the condemnation comes from the heart of the Catholic Church.
I mentioned here that I’d had a disturbing conversation with Jewish women recently about some of their encounters with some young Catholic men.
EWTN here covers the recent antisemitism conference I emceed at the Knights of Columbus John Paul II shrine:
Again, Catholic doctrine does not justify, promote, or encourage antisemitism. To the contrary, the church makes clear that antisemitism is a grave sin.
If you have young men in your life flirting with this poison, send them Father Patrick’s video. It may not convince them, but there are hard facts there that might plant a seed; and this is someone who regularly ministers to the very men who are looking for meaning, purpose, and security, something to be proud of and confident in. They are susceptible to this insidious trend that is the same as it ever was but is now online and masking itself in traditional Catholicism.
For a little tradition, check out the EWTN video with file footage of Pope Paul VI, the last pope to wear the papal tiara. He’s the one who was ultimately responsible for Nostra Aetate, where antisemitism was clearly condemned.
Don’t wrap evil in the smells and bells of a call to holiness. They are incompatible.