Ultra-traditionalist Argentine Roman Catholics have openly challenged Pope Francis by disrupting one of his favorite events, an interfaith ceremony in the Metropolitan Cathedral meant to promote religious harmony on the anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust.
The annual gathering of Catholics, Jews and Protestants marks Kristallnacht, the Nazi-led mob violence in 1938 when about 1,000 Jewish synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews were forced into concentration camps, launching the genocide that killed 6 million Jews.
Before he assumed the papacy, Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his good friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka led the ceremony every year.
A small group disrupted Tuesday night’s ceremony by shouting the rosary and the “Our Father” prayer, and spreading pamphlets saying that “followers of false gods must be kept out of the sacred temple.”
Buenos Aires Archbishop Mario Poli, named by Francis to replace him as Argentina’s top church official, appealed for calm as others in the audience rose up to repudiate the protesters, who were soon escorted out by police.
“Let there be peace. Shalom,” Poli then said, urging everyone to take their seats.
“Dear Jewish brothers, please feel at home, because that’s the way Christians want it, despite these signs of intolerance,” Poli said.
“Your presence here doesn’t desecrate a temple of God. We will continue in peace this encounter that Pope Francis always promoted, valued and appreciated so much,” he added.
Skorka, who co-wrote a book of dialogues with Bergoglio seeking common ground between Judaism and Catholicism, described the incident in an interview with Radio 10 on Wednesday.
“The cathedral was full, with people standing, prepared for a profound act of introspection, when a group of about 40 people began to recite from the Christian liturgy, the ‘Our Father,’ and began to hand out little pieces of paper saying that Jews were blaspheming the place,” Skorka said.
Skorka said protesters made cutting comments like “the Jews killed Jesus.”
He said one Jew confronted them, saying, “My grandmother died in Auschwitz,” to which an activist replied, “Do you belive that lie?”
The Reverend Christian Bouchacourt, the South US leader of the Society of Saint Pius X, said on Wednesday that the protesters belong to his organization and that they have a right to feel outraged when rabbis preside over a ceremony in a cathedral.
“I recognize the authority of the pope, but he is not infallible and in this case does things we cannot accept,” Bouchacourt said in an interview with Radio La Red.
“This wasn’t a desire to make a rebellion, but to show our love to the Catholic Church, which was made for the Catholic faith,” Bouchacourt said.
“A Mass isn’t celebrated in a synagogue, nor in a mosque. The Muslims don’t accept it. In the same way, we who are Catholics cannot accept the presence of another faith in our church,” he added.
The Vatican spokesman declined to comment, saying the issue was outside his normal area of jurisdiction.
The Society of St Pius X is a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics who are attached to the old Latin Mass and follow the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who founded the Swiss-based society in 1969 in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
The Vatican II meetings made a point of reaching out to Jews and people of other faiths.
Pope Benedict XVI made reconciling with the society a priority, but Pope Francis has made clear he has little interest in courting the traditionalists.
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