Henri de Lubac on Antisemitism.docx

Henri de Lubac(1896-1991) and anti-Semitism During the years in which France succumbed to nazi ideology and was occupied by German forces, Henri de Lubac, a French cardinal and one of the great contemporary thinkers the Catholic Church can boast of, played a decisive role in the French resistance to anti-Semitism. Active as a priest, de Lubac collaborated in the composition of ''official'' proclamations such as the famous 1941 ''Chaine Declaration" and also arranged conferences, wrote books, and participated in various resistance activities. One of de Lubac’s most intimate friends, Yves de Montcheuil α student companion among others, was shot to death in July 1944 by the Gestapo. De Lubac made clear his commitment to oppose what he termed Europe's "collective apostasy" under Nazism in α confidential letter to his religious superiors in April 1941. The commitment is amply demonstrated in a 260-page book of de Lubac's memoirs published in France, entitled Résistance Chrétienne et l'Antisémitisme: Souvenirs 1940-1944. The book, devoted to de Lubac’s views on the Nazi occupation of France and the persecution of the Jews in the years of occupation includes not only de Lubac's personal memoirs, but, more significan¬tly, de Lubac's precise analysis of controversial documents and events which up to now have been unknown to the general public. In fourteen dense chapters, the French cardinal's writings shed new light on documents like the Déclaration Chaine (the Chaine Declaration), rapport Bérard ('The Bérard Report") and the Cahiers du Témoignage Chrétien (Notebooks οf Christian Witness as well as on those persons of war-time France who played significant roles in the effort to defend the Jews. The Vichy government in occupied France issued its first anti-Jewish law on October 18, 1940. Even French Jews were slow to perceive the consequences and there was little public protest. Α second anti-Jewish law was promulgated June 3, 1941. An anti-Nazi German exile then living in Lyon, Paulus Lenz-Medoc, saw clearly where these laws were leading. Through α friend, Lenz-Medoc contacted Father Joseph Chaine, university chaplain and professor of Old Testament studies at the Catholic Theological Faculty at Lyons Chaine agreed to help draft a statement of protest on the part of the Catholic Theology Faculty and to use his influence to win support for it. De Lubac was among those who helped draft the statement. The Chaine Declaration began to circulate on June 16, 1941. A month later, the french cardinals and bishops issued their own declaration on July 24. The Chaine Declaration is thought to have influenced the later statement, perhaps through Cardinal Gerlier of Lyon, who would have had access to it. At this same time, Marshal Henri Petain of the Vichy government, wrote to the French ambassador to the Holy See, Leon Bérard, to obtain the Vatican's reaction to the new laws. In his book, de Lubac argues that this was a ploy on Pétain's part to set the Vatican against the French hierarchy. Ambassador Bérard did what was asked of him and issued a vague statement, the "Bérard Report," which was interpreted by Pétain - and intended by Pétain to be so interpreted, de Lubac argues - as taking a position opposed to that of the French hierarchy. From de Lubac's eyewitness account, a picture of the Catholic Church and its pastors emerges which shows many of them, including de Lubac himself, aware of the need to oppose the omnipresent anti-Semitic propaganda, which they view as anti-Christian. The Nazis attempted to obtain the support of public opinion through films, images, indiscriminate use of the press, and means of persuasion of every kind. De Lubac, then professor of fundamental theology and history of religion in the Catholic University of Lyons, began to study Judaism under Fathers Victor Fontoynont and Jules Monchanin. Monchanin organized meetings between Jews and Christians and participated actively in the Jewish-Catholic Foyer in Paris on rue Froidevaux, a center which held conferences to challenge France's resurging anti-Semitism - "a little oasis of peace in the center of hatred," de Lubac writes. According to de Lubac, Monchanin used every opportunity to argue that "it was not possible to separate the two halves of the Bible," and that "one perverts the New Testament by separating it from its historical roots," attempting to awake the sleeping consciences of those unaware that "the anti-Semitism of the Nazis extends even to God." Supported by magisterial documents like the decree of the Holy Office dated March 12, 1928, in which the Holy See condemned /maxime damnat/ hatred of the Jews, and by a similar discourse of Pius XI addressed to Belgian pilgrims in 1938, de Lubac, from the first signs of anti-Semitism, undertook an intense activity on behalf of the Jews. In January, 1941, for example, de Lubac held two conferences in Lyons in which he took up the battle against racism. As the situation worsened, de Lubac increasingly responded not only with his writings, but in actions as well. On April 15, 1941, de Lubac decided to send to his religious superiors "a confidential letter" in which he wrote: "The current anti-Semitism is no longer that which our fathers knew; beyond being degrading for those who abandon themselves to it, it is actually anti-Christian. It opposes the Bible, as much the New as the Old Testament, and the universalism of the Church, which it calls "the Roman International"; *it attacks* all that which Pope Pius XI, following Saint Paul, proclaimed the day he said: 'Spiritually, we are Jews!' It is all the more necessary to be on guard since this anti-Semitism has already penetrated into the Catholic elites, even into our religious houses." In Lyon, together with Father Chaine, Father Louis Richard (who was later arrested and deported by the Gestapo) and Father Joseph Βοnsirven, a distinguished biblicist, de Lubac helped write the Chaine Declaration. Bonsirven was the publisher of a "Jewish chronicle," sparking indignant protests from anti-Semitic circles. In 1938, he held a conference on Judaism each week at the Catholic Institute of Paris. De Lubac's work did not end here. He published in Cité Nouvelle (New City) an article dated October 25, 1941, "Explication Chrétienne de Notre Temps," and planned, encouraged by his superiors, further articles. He attempted, under the eyes of the government and Nazi censors, a more decisive article on the "Defense of Christ and the Bible." The article was immediately blocked, despite the interventions of the editors, who tried vainly to obtain press authorization for it. Moreover, in collaboration with the other editors of the Chaine Declaration, he wrote the book Israêl et la Foi Chrétienne (Israel and the Christian Faith), published outside of France with the regular imprimatur in neutral Switzerland by the University library of Fribourg; that is, by means of the underground. The most effective supporter of such crossborder contacts was the theologian and future cardinal Charles Journet, then α lecturer at Fribourg. The book,. introduced and circulated in France through clandestine channels, became famous. Finally, in an almost official context, during the Congress of Alms held at Sainte-Baume April 14-17, 1942, de Lubac publicly distributed his own reflections in favor of the fight against anti-Semitism. He also took an active part in the clandestine edition, as co-editor, of the famous Notebooks of Christian Witness, alongside founder Father Chaillet and Father Gaston Fessard, de Lubac's great friend and companion during his philosophical studies at the Jesuit school of Jersey *1920/1923*. De Lubac reviewed the manuscripts, maintained secret contact with Father Chaillet, and he often went to the home of someone fleeing to avoid arrest with the goal of bringing a "Notebook" and of helping in some way. Sometimes de Lubac himself was forced to hide out for reasons of security, since he was under suspicion and being watched by the Gestapo. This work, especially from 1942 on, proceeded in "full accord with the ecclesiastical and religious superiors" and in the spirit of the struggle against anti-Semitism which Fessard had initiated. De Lubac, Fessard and Chaillet did their best to distribute documents of the ecclesiastical Magisterium on the subject, in particular the documents of the Pope, of various episcopates, and of the Holy Office, always maintaining independence both from London and other clandestine resistance organizations. All of de Lubac's work was permeated by the conviction of the necessity to safeguard the purity and the integrity of Christianity against the Nazi threat. Of himself and of his close friends, who have played a great part in the reinvigoration of religious life and Catholic theology in this century, de Lubac writes: "In the anguish of the 1930s, then under Nazi rule, we felt ourselves at the same time heartened by the life giving breath of Catholicism. This was true for Chaillet, Fessard, Montcheuil. De Lubac saw his work as being one of fidelity to the Church in the conviction that "the real questions that decide all ...are the fundamental questions that the Church never ceases to remind us of." What these fundamental questions were in those years de Lubac explains, above all, in the confidential letter of April 1941, where he refers to the struggle of Pius XI (and also of Ρius ΧΙΙ) against Nazi "neopaganism." He cites the famous 1938 papal discourse to Belgian pilgrims, in which Catholics were spoken of as the spiritual heirs of the Jews. He also cites the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, and defends the Pope against the accusations made against him that he hadn't spoken out sharply enough against Nazism. He terms such accusations a "systematic distortion of reality." He cites the words pronounced by the rabbi of Paris, Julien Weil, the day after the death of Pius XI on February 11, 1939: "The death of the His Holiness Pius XI strikes me profoundly and painfully. To the universal respect that surrounded the august pontiff, Judaism associates itself with all its heart, admiring and honoring in him a great servant of God, a true apostle of sοcial justice, of peace, and of human fraternity. Repeatedly, Pius has denounced with a firmness and a luminous clarity the pernicious errors of racist neopaganism as irreconciliable with the Christian faith…I am sure that I express the feelings of all my coreligious by saluting with respect the great figure of Pius XI”. Antonio Russo University of Trieste, Italy 4