Pope Francis Calls Jews ‘Big Brothers’ of Church on Kristallnacht Anniversary

We Are Family: Pope Francis called the Jewish people the ?Big Brothers? of his Roman Catholic flock during a speech in memorial of Kristallnacht. Image by getty images

By Reuters November 10, 2013

Pope Francis described the Jewish people as the “big brothers” of his Roman Catholic flock on Sunday in words of solidarity marking the 75th anniversary of the Kristallnacht attacks on Jews and their property in Nazi Germany.

Francis said the state-sponsored ransacking of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues, on the night of Nov. 9, 1938, in which scores of Jewish people were killed, marked a step towards the Holocaust and should not be forgotten.

“We renew our closeness and solidarity to the Jewish people, our big brothers, and pray to God that the memory of the past and of the sins of the past helps us to be always vigilant against every form of hate and intolerance,” Francis told thousands in St. Peter’s Square in his Sunday mass.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church has pledged good relations with Jews and his March election was welcomed by the world’s Jewish associations.

Francis co-authored a book on inter-faith dialogue with Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO