Christians, Jews, and the Holocaust: Theses for Dialogue

The Holocaust has been the catalyst for much of the dialogue that has taken place in recent decades between Jews and Catholics. The author seeks to help Jews and Catholics understand what is taking place in the other community. The first two theses concern the history of mistreatment of Jews by the Church and the Church's new approach to Jews and Judaism. The third and fourth theses deal with the New Testament: the harmful effects its reading has had on the lives of Jews, and the Church's unprecedented attempt to confront the most difficult passages in the New Testament. The last two theses concern Pope Pius XII, putting him in the context of both the general indifference to Jewish sufferings during the Holocaust and the internal conflicts taking place within the Catholic Church.