— John T. Pawlikowski
O.S.M., Professor of Ethics and Director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois
— John T. Pawlikowski
O.S.M., Professor of Ethics and Director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois
The picture of the Catholic church or of the Christian churches generally, tends to vary a bit from country to country and from time period to time period within the era of the Holocaust. But almost nowhere did the Christian churches make the rescue of Jews a high or even a modestly high priority. There were individuals who certainly risked their lives and who thought it was their Christian obligation to do so, to save Jews, but if there was an organized effort at all on the part of the churches to save people of Jewish descent, it tended to be focused on the rescue of Christian Jews. And so I think the biggest failure was Jews were simply not seen as a high priority in terms of rescue by the Christian churches.
