Sunday, July 20, 2008

Catholic priest sparks Holocaust row

A Catholic priest from Norfolk has angered members of the Jewish community after he compared abortion to the Holocaust.

Father Mark Hackeson made the comparison in an article in a parish magazine about the value of human life and issues thrown up by the recent Human Fertility and Embryology Bill.

The parish priest based in Poringland, near Norwich, used the article to discuss his views on abortion and said: “Since the legalising of abortion in this country over 6m lives have been destroyed - on a par with the Jewish Holocaust.”

The comparison between abortion and the Holocaust of World War Two, made in the Chet News, the parish magazine for Chedgrave, Hardley and Langley, has been criticised by members of Norwich's Jewish community.

Rabbi Andrew Sheldrake from the Adat Yashua Messianic synagogue based in Thorpe St Andrew, said: “We do not support abortion either, but you cannot compare the two. The holocaust was a single event designed in an evil mind to annihilate people. It is not on a par with abortion. Doctors and pregnant mothers do not hate the children within them.”

Mr Sheldrake added: “It's indicative of the fact that Christians do not understand the enormity of the holocaust and how it resonates in the Jewish community.”

Figures released in June showed that the number of abortions, including ones carried out on young girls, hit a record high. Across all age groups there was a 2.5pc increase from 193,700 in 2006 to 198,500 in 2007.

In Norfolk the year on year abortion figures stayed with 1,743 abortions in 2007 compared to 1,732 in 2006.

But Fr Hackeson defended his comments. He said: “I condemn the Holocaust as much as and in the same way that I condemn abortion. I am angered that human life is not respected in all its forms.”

The magazine is delivered to villagers throughout Chedgrave, Hardley and Langley, and would have been read by parishioners of all faiths - not just the Catholic community.

Fr Hackeson said the magazine was a church publication and he had been asked to write the article as a Catholic priest. He said: “If I cannot, as a clergyman, write about the teachings and the attitudes of the Christian church in a church magazine, where can I?”

In 2004 the Loddon and Poringland parish priest raised eyebrows when he defended Mel Gibson's controversial film, The Passion. Many Jewish leaders condemned the film, branding it “deplorable” and anti-Semitic but Mr Hackeson dismissed those claims.

He said: “I thought it was an excellent and very moving film. I do not believe it is anti-Semitic. Jesus himself was Jewish.”

Byron Simmonds, chair of the Progressive Jewish Community of East Anglia based in Norwich, said the priest should have thought about how the article would be received by others.

He said: “It's using the comparison in a very emotive way which Jewish people would find offensive. He ought to be aware that Jewish people would be offended by that.”
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