“Aggression cannot be an act of faith,” Pope Francis said in relation to a recent incident at the Buenos Aires Cathedral where members of the ultra-conservative Catholic breakaway Society of St. Pius X interrupted a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938. Francis made it clear that “preaching intolerance is a form of militancy that must be overcome.”
Latin American Jewish Congress Executive Director Claudio Epelman,
who is in charge of the World Jewish Congress’ relations with the
Vatican, was part of a delegation of six religious leaders from South
America who were received for a private audience with the Catholic
pontiff at the Vatican.
Epelman praised Pope Francis for his message to the Jewish people on the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht and his repeated clear and unequivocal condemnation of anti-Semitism.
Six members of the Latin American Committee of Religious Leaders for
Peace met with the Pope in the Santa Marta guesthouse at the Vatican on
Tuesday morning.
As well as Epelman, Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis from Brazil, Mohamad Hallar
of the Islamic Organization of Latin America, Samuel Olson of the Latin
American Evangelical Alliance, Felipe Adolf of the Latin American
Council of Protestant Churches, and Elias Szczytnicki, secretary of the umbrella body Council of Religious Leaders of Religions for Peace, took part in the meeting.
“With this meeting, the Pope has once again shown his strong, personal
commitment to building bridges between religions and to working together
with all of us to secure peace,” declared Epelman.