Catholic antisemitism

[Peace]

OK folks to what extent does antisemitism exist within Catholic communities?

I don't want to put all of the details up about what happened, but basically there is a group of younger guys at my church. I've been cool with them on some level through various church functions, so they decided to invite me to an informal "chat group" through which they communicate with each other (don't want to add more specifics than that).

Basically, when I went in there, I saw all kinds of blatantly anti-Semitic stuff being written. Pretty ugly stuff that I do not want to repeat here.

I had heard rumors of these sort of sentiments existing among Catholics, but it is not something that I had ever seen or experienced myself. I was quite surprised. Shocked to see it really.

Is this sort of thing a true aberration? Or does this sort of thing actually go on behind the scenes frequently in some communities?

[Guest]

Must have been an unsettling experience. 

Never experienced it myself, thank God.  I have had membership of quite a few Australian Catholic communities and discussion groups in my time.  In my previous suburb, I had a lot to do with secular teenagers outside of my parish.  I heard probably a lot of things that gave me a grey hair or two, but never anti-Semitism. 

Edited December 13, 2020 by BarbaraTherese

[Lilllabettt]

6 hours ago, Peace said:

OK folks to what extent does antisemitism exist within Catholic communities?

I don't want to put all of the details up about what happened, but basically there is a group of younger guys at my church. I've been cool with them on some level through various church functions, so they decided to invite me to an informal "chat group" through which they communicate with each other (don't want to add more specifics than that).

Basically, when I went in there, I saw all kinds of blatantly anti-Semitic stuff being written. Pretty ugly stuff that I do not want to repeat here.

I had heard rumors of these sort of sentiments existing among Catholics, but it is not something that I had ever seen or experienced myself. I was quite surprised. Shocked to see it really.

Is this sort of thing a true aberration? Or does this sort of thing actually go on behind the scenes frequently in some communities?

Scratch a trad, you may find an antisemite.  Those that consider Nostra aetate a modernist invention.

Not sure if I would describe it as "frequent" with them but more prevalent than with the average Catholic.  

[Ash Wednesday]

Not much in my experience as far as anything associated with being actively Catholic. My parish upbringing in the U.S. wasn't particularly remarkable. It had very weak catechesis but I would say that the discussion of the Jewish tradition as far as I recalled, was positive. I haven't heard much of anything problematic since moving to the UK in general, though I can only report my own personal experience as far as that goes.

I've heard some remarks related to the "penny pincher" stereotypes from a couple of people over 70, one was American and a couple of others were from eastern Europe. They weren't particularly religious, but I do sense that antisemitism does run deep there.

[Peace]

On 12/13/2020 at 3:32 PM, BarbaraTherese said:

Must have been an unsettling experience. 

Never experienced it myself, thank God.  I have had membership of quite a few Australian Catholic communities and discussion groups in my time.  In my previous suburb, I had a lot to do with secular teenagers outside of my parish.  I heard probably a lot of things that gave me a grey hair or two, but never anti-Semitism. 

That's cool. I have seen it a little bit among some blacks, but never among Catholics. I would guess that it varies a lot by country.

20 hours ago, Lilllabettt said:

Scratch a trad, you may find an antisemite.  Those that consider Nostra aetate a modernist invention.

Not sure if I would describe it as "frequent" with them but more prevalent than with the average Catholic.  

I wasn't even going to go there, but yeah these particular guys were self-identified trads.

2 hours ago, Ash Wednesday said:

Not much in my experience as far as anything associated with being actively Catholic. My parish upbringing in the U.S. wasn't particularly remarkable. It had very weak catechesis but I would say that the discussion of the Jewish tradition as far as I recalled, was positive. I haven't heard much of anything problematic since moving to the UK in general, though I can only report my own personal experience as far as that goes.

I've heard some remarks related to the "penny pincher" stereotypes from a couple of people over 70, one was American and a couple of others were from eastern Europe. They weren't particularly religious, but I do sense that antisemitism does run deep there.

Actually come to think of it, during high-school there were a couple of guys on my football team who were basically anti-semites. They made the "penny pincher" type jokes all the time. They were basically racist against blacks, hispanics too though, so at least they were equal opportunity! The particular city I grew up is pretty Catholic, with a large Eastern Europe immigrant base historically. But the city also has a huge Jewish population. I did hear some anti-Jewish stuff growing up come to think of it, but I never particularly associated that with the Catholics in the city, at the time.

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Peace said:

guess that it varies a lot by country