Posted on 05/29/2006 4:33:42 PM PDT by NYer
"A Warning and a Word of Hope"
ROME, MAY 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Jewish representatives called Benedict XVI's visit to Auschwitz a warning to humanity to help ensure that such a horror will not be repeated.
Giuseppe Laras, president of Italy's rabbis, stated on Vatican Radio that "this visit is a warning to humanity and a word of hope and consolation for all those who suffered."
"I have read in Benedict XVI's words the suffering for what occurred, for the responsibilities of Nazism, and in a certain part, also of the German people," said Laras.
At the site of the concentration camp on Sunday, the Pope asked why God kept silent during the Holocaust.
The president of Italy's rabbis commented on the Holy Father's words, explaining that "before asking about God's silence, it is necessary to ask why man was silent; that is, where was man in Auschwitz?"
"In the end, man is a creature that bears the imprint of the image of God," Laras said. "He is a creature gifted with freedom.
"We must consider that man has surely not exercised the power of freedom given to him by God in a worthy manner. Therefore, before posing a theological question, perhaps it is necessary to pose an ethical or sociological question."
According to Laras, the memory of Auschwitz must lead to an "awareness of what happened and to a commitment to say 'never again.'"
For his part, Leone Paserman, a leader of Rome's Jewish community, said in statements on Vatican Radio that the Pope's visit "is an acknowledgment of the horror of the Holocaust. The Pope himself wished to underline that, as a German, he could not fail to come to Auschwitz."
That statement leaves me wondering how Laras views abortion.
In 2003, Rabbi Yehuda Levin wrote about a poster he saw in New York city that declared, “STOP The Silent Holocaust — 2,000,000 children destroyed by abortion in Israel.” The poster is part of a campaign sponsored by a Jewish/Israeli group, EFRAT-C.R.I.B, dedicated to stopping abortion in Israel. Source: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05022306.html
In Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums Pope John Paul calls abortion a “legal extermination” and compares its institution with the
German laws, which declared the Jews non-persons and allowed them to be murdered by the state. He wrote, “It was a legally elected parliament which allowed for the election of Hitler in Germany in the 1930s.”
John Paul wrote that abortion and legalized genocide are both the result of people usurping the “law of God” in the name of democracy. “We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present-day democracies.”
“The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws. Parliaments which create and promulgate such laws must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature.”
The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal indicted and convicted ten Nazi leaders for "encouraging and compelling abortions," an act which the Tribunal characterized as "a crime against humanity." As with their other crimes against humanity, the Nazis protested that "we were just following orders." Lieutenant General Richard Hildebrandt, the SS (Schutzstaffel) Chief of the RKFVD's Race and Settlement Office in Berlin, stated that "Up to now nobody had the idea to see in this interruption of pregnancy a crime against humanity."
-- Nuremberg Military Tribunals,IV:1081-84. Nuremberg: NO-3512.
"At the site of the concentration camp on Sunday, the Pope asked why God kept silent during the Holocaust. "
Very, very interesting question to be answered. If God kept silent, why blame anyone? If God permitted this to happen, was it part of a 'salvation plan'?
full address available here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1639875/posts
here's a snip -
How many questions arise in this place! Constantly the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?
The words of Psalm 44 come to mind, Israel's lament for its woes: "You have broken us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with deep darkness ... because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For we sink down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up, come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!" (Psalm 44:19,22-26).
This cry of anguish, which Israel raised to God in its suffering, at moments of deep distress, is also the cry for help raised by all those who in every age -- yesterday, today and tomorrow -- suffer for the love of God, for the love of truth and goodness. How many they are, even in our own day!
Wow! I didn't realize that link with abortion as crime against humanity ... how effective have been the societal engineers in re-educating we peons to embrace the evil as good! Sure tells me for whom they work ...
"Israel will be stone against stones. Eto fore pray.”
I wasn't going to say anything, but had exactly the same thought reading that.
Please don't take this wrong, but that is exactly the reason the abortion industry is doing so well. Good people 'don't say anything' about their views on abortion.
At work, I am often pressured to contribute to the United Way. I tell them I do not contribute because the United Way supports planned parenthood. I told this to the president of a company I worked with, who wanted 100% participation from the officer team. I told him I could not, and offered him ny resignation if he wanted it. He respected my opinion.
Please stand up for the unborn!
My wife and I hope to adopt. And I would give my very life if it meant ending legal abortion and making plain its gruesome reality to every single American.
A great site to visit: abort73.com.
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