Friday, November 07, 2003

By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University will host its sixth annual conference this weekend amid concerns about rising anti-Semitism worldwide.

"Catholics need to hear the story of the Holocaust," said Sister Gemma Del Luca, who founded the center in 1987. "It's not just the history of the Jewish people; it's human history and it does involve a large Christian population of Europe -- in some instances, countries where the majority population was Catholic."

While never official church doctrine, stereotypes of Jews as greedy monsters who murdered God were disseminated for centuries from pulpits and in passion plays until the church repudiated such views in 1965.

"Catholic teaching of contempt [for Jews] didn't directly cause the Holocaust, but it created an atmosphere and environment in which the Holocaust could happen," said Sister Lois Sculco, Seton Hill's vice president for administration and student life.

Sister Del Luca has forged a partnership with the Israeli Holocaust memorial museum, Yad Vashem. The Seton Hill center grew out of her work at Tel Gamaliel in Jerusalem, which promotes Christian-Jewish conversation on theology and the Scriptures.

The center was founded on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi riot with which Hitler inaugurated his violent campaign against Jews. The annual conference coincides with the Nov. 9-10 anniversary. A remembrance service will be held at 4 p.m. Monday.

The center's goal is to help others teach about the Holocaust in Catholic settings. This year, the focus is on schools at all levels. For example, one seminar will spotlight school children who interviewed Holocaust survivors in Florida. Another will focus on lessons learned by special education students at a Catholic university studying the Nazi euthanasia campaign.

One of the center's missions is to familiarize Catholics with Nostra Aetate, the Vatican document that rejected the idea that all Jews are somehow responsible for Jesus' crucifixion, Sister Del Luca said. The positive view of Jews and Judaism that stems from Vatican II and Pope John Paul II should become as apparent from the pulpit as the negative views once were, she said.

But old stereotypes persist. One adult student, despite a semester in her course, wrote a paper saying, "The Holocaust was a punishment for the Jews because they killed Jesus," Sister Sculco said.

The center works closely with Catholic schools in the Greensburg Diocese and anywhere else they are invited. A persistent problem is that Jesus is rarely presented as a Jew.

"You say to the teachers, 'You know that Jesus wasn't a Catholic' and they just sort of look at you," Sister Sculco said. "It's not that Catholic school teachers don't know these things. But their education is not in that area."

There will be five featured talks -- all free and open to the public:

Philip Cunningham, director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, Catholic textbook presentations of Jews and Judaism, tomorrow at 2 p.m.

The Rev. John Pawlikowski, director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program of the Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Center in Chicago, Sunday at 11 a.m.

Sister Mary Boys, keynote speaker and theology professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, "Remembering the Shoah: An Educational and Theological Challenge in the Third Millennium," Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

Daniel C. Napolitano, director of teacher fellowship programs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a former Catholic high school teacher, "When Catholics Study the Holocaust: Guidelines for Owning the Intercultural Experience of Studying and Learning about the Holocaust," Monday at 9 a.m.

Eva Fleischner, a Holocaust researcher and Catholic theologian, "Rescuers of Jews: Tales of Heroism, Generosity, Ambiguity and Conflict," Monday at 10 a.m.

The talks will be in Cecilian Hall. An art exhibit by Holocaust survivor Anna Walinska will also be featured, with a gallery talk by curator Rosina Rubin at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the Harlan Gallery.

Registration at the door, for those wishing to take part in workshops and events aside from those listed above, is $35 a day. A full schedule of workshops can be found at www.setonhill.edu. Click on "NCCHE" under "Centers."

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