As if he was speaking on cue, retired Polish Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek accused Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, using it to "advance propaganda agendas". The cleric's remarks appeared on a Roman Catholic website.
He stated the Jewish capitalization of the Holocaust is "not permissible" and "While it is undeniable that most of those who died in the concentration camps were Jews, there were also gypsies, Poles, Italians and Catholics on the list."
He did not stop there, but continued accusing the Jews of using the Holocaust to "obtain advantages that are often unjustified", and "the Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention". "The Shoah is used as a propaganda weapon and to obtain advantages that are often unjustified," he charged.
As the Vatican defends Pope Benedict XVI's decision regarding the beatification of anti-Semite Pius X, insisting he did act to help the Jews but it was unknown, Pieronek, the former spokesman of Poland's Bishops Conference made his anti-Semitic position crystal clear, a position that many believe echoes the actions of the Church during WWII.
The retired Polish cleric also addressed current political realities, calling Israel's security partition barrier, which was constructed to halt suicide bombers, "a colossal injustice against the Palestinians". He is calling for a day to honor the Palestinians, timing his statements two days before the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, obviously seeking to draw a comparison to the suffering of the PA residents due to Israeli policy.
After news of his remarks hit the press, the bishop released a statement that his comments appearing on the Italian Roman Catholic website were taken out of context.
(Yechiel Spira - YWN Israel)
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