It is hard to believe that Sept. 1 this year marked the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. Pope Benedict XVI took this opportunity to speak about the absurdity of war as he challenged the world to embrace forgiveness, peace and reconciliation. His remarks were particularly poignant as they were delivered to a group of Polish pilgrims. Here a German pope is speaking to Polish pilgrims in Polish about that day when a German battleship fired on a Polish fort on Sept. 1, 1939, as German troops invaded Poland from the north, south and west. Two days later both France and Great Britain declared war on Germany beginning the Second World War.
He said in his remarks, “The human tragedies and the absurdity of war remain in people’s memories. Let us ask God that the spirit of forgiveness, peace and reconciliation pervades the hearts of all people. Europe and the world today need a spirit of communion, which should be built upon Christ, his Gospel, charity and truth.” The pope was only 12 years old when the war broke out, and he and his family were living in Bavaria. By the war’s end in 1945 more than 60 million people had died.
Of course, one particularly horrifying aspect of the war was the wholesale murder of innocent people in the death camps run by the Nazis. Last month Pope Benedict said that the concentration camps run by the Nazis were “extreme symbols of evil” and “hell on earth.” He made these remarks as he honored two saints who lost their lives in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
I visited Auschwitz a few years ago and will never forget the sense of evil that one can still discern after all these years. I also had the honor to stand in the cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan priest, was killed in August of 1941. He was a vessel of courage, grace and sanctity in this place of desolation, evil and inhumane horror.
The pope also honored St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known as Edith Stein. Edith was a German Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun. She was deported to Auschwitz in early August 1942 because of her Jewish origins. She was believed to be martyred on Aug. 9, 1942. Pope Benedict said, “All saints, especially martyrs bear witness to God, who is love. The Nazi (death camps), like any extermination camps, can be considered extreme symbols of evil. They are a symbol of the hell that comes to earth when man forgets God and replaces him, usurping his right to decide what is right and what is wrong, to give life and death.” The pope said, however, that this phenomenon is not circumscribed to the death camps. He also took to task the “contemporary nihilism” and behaviors that exalt arbitrariness and “transform man into God — but a wrong God!”
As Catholic Christians we can never forget the wholesale slaughter of 6 million Jews in the concentration camps run by the Nazis. We must always be quick to condemn any attempt of anti-Semitism, which was the root of the Nazi horrors. Pope Benedict XVI has been very clear and vocal in his condemnation of anti-Semitism and the sorts of twisted philosophy that the Nazi and other hate groups harbor. Pope Benedict, after his own visit to the Auschwitz death camp in 2006, said “That appalling chapter of history where so many Jews, mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends … were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred, must never be forgotten or denied. On the contrary, those dark memories should strengthen our determination to draw closer to one another.”
The hatred and bigotry that infected the minds of those who ascribed to the Nazi philosophy still exists today. Religious, ethnic and sexual minorities are still actively harassed and threatened with violence by individuals and groups that harbor hate in their hearts. On this 70th anniversary of a war based upon hatred, hegemony and a warped understanding of human worth and dignity, it would do the world community a great service if we all checked our minds and hearts and rid them of the seeds of hatred and prejudice. The true teachings on human harmony, peace and respect come to all people of religion through our inspired writings and enlightened leaders. Let us continue to champion the cause of justice, peace and human solidarity. War no more.
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