The papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust

2. Anti-Judaism in the Church: From the French Revolution to the Mid-Nineteenth Century

2 ANTI-JUDAISM IN THE CHURCH From the French Revolution to the Mid-Nineteenth Century Now We consider another abundant source of the evils with which the Church is afflicted at present: indifferentism . This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained.* THE PAPAL RESPONSE to the ideological transformation initiated by the French and Industrial Revolutions reflected a clash of cultures. The popes from Pius VI (–) to Gregory XVI (–) were pressed to reconcile the traditionalism of the Church and papal transcendent claims with the liberal and nationalist innovations of the age. It proved a difficult and at times an impossible task. It is within this context that the Church’s attitude toward Jews and the separate, though related, issue of its response to Jewish emancipation during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries must be examined. After the Nazi genocide, however, the relationship between the Church and the Jews has been increasingly influenced by the attempt to explore the roots of the Holocaust in the anti-Judaism of Christianity. This chapter traces the historical evolution of papal anti-Judaism in the 41 * Gregory XVI, Mirari vos,  August , PE :. first half of the nineteenth century within the context of the papal struggle against modern civilization and the Jews, who increasingly appeared to be the virtual incarnation of modernity. At the opening of the nineteenth century, the Church’s major preoccupation was not its relationship with the Jews but revolutionary social and political upheaval, which provoked a conflict between its traditionalism and the liberalism of the modern age.1 The age of revolution struck at the papacy’s religious rationale as well as its political base. Papal authority was questioned, its mission reviled, and its power curtailed by tumultuous events that often profaned the spiritual while extolling the material. In response , the popes warned that the absolute individualism and religious indifferentism that flowed from political and economic liberalism would inevitably lead to chaos and moral confusion. Early on, Rome rejected self-interest as an appropriate motivation for human conduct. From the papal perspective, the Jewish issue represented one part of its broader confrontation with the unfortunate consequences of modernity.2 While the papacy concurred with Marx that capitalism “drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor,”3 it rejected the collectivism and communism that emerged as a reaction. Not surprisingly, the five popes, from Pius VI through Gregory XVI, refused to sanction either, while waging a conflict against modern doctrines, including religious freedom for all faiths, which they denounced as indifferentism. The outbreak of the French Revolution in , which challenged the traditional order, posed new and frightening problems for Rome and cast a shadow on the pontificate of Pius VI. The papacy, confronted with the revolutionary call for liberty, equality, and fraternity, harbored serious reservations about all three. Although the revolutionary upheaval in France was not initially inspired by antireligious sentiments, distressing developments soon took shape in Paris, despite the fact that a majority of the French were Catholic. As early as  an unruly mob attacked the religious house 42 Anti-Judaism in the Church . In this regard consult the ASV, SS, files on emigranti della rivoluzione, those of the epoca Napoleonica, Francia, and epoca Napoleonica, Italia, among others. . Renato Moro, La Chiesa e lo stermino degli ebei (Bologna: Mulino, ), –; Marina Caffiero, La nuova era. Miti e profezie dell’Italia in Rivoluzione (Genoa: Marietti, ), –. . Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, ed. Frederic L. Bender (New York: W. W. Norton , ), . of the Lazzarists and another menaced the Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Juigone.4 The situation deteriorated further following the National Assembly ’s passage, in , of the civil constitution of the clergy, which provided that bishops were to be elected not only by the Catholic faithful but by Protestants, Jews, agnostics, and even atheists. The revolutionaries made various attempts to secularize society, including the eventual introduction of civil matrimony and divorce and the abolition of clerical control of education .5 The assembly’s unilateral attempts to reorganize and restrict the Church alarmed Rome and led to an eventual clash. The system of thought guiding Rome’s conduct differed radically from that emanating from Paris, where the new political elite equated Catholic orthodoxy with rigidity bolstered by stupidity. The confiscation of Church property...