In an interview with a Brazilian trade publication, Catholic Archbishop Dadeus Grings made the disappointing and distressing comment that “more Catholics than Jews have died in the Holocaust, but this is not usually told because Jews own the world's propaganda.”
“The archbishop is in need of a major history lesson,” said BBI Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin. “His twisting of the facts of the Holocaust is dangerous and hurtful and sets back the cause of Catholic-Jewish relations.”
By saying Jews run the media, Grings is feeding into an old stereotype that endangers Jews, who easily become scapegoats for a host of issues.
Coming just a few months after the pope lifted the excommunication of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson, this situation adds to a troubling pattern within the church. In that case, Pope Benedict XVI repudiated Williamson’s comments and expressed “solidarity” with Jews.
Grings is the archbishop of Porto Alegre, the home to about 12,000 Jews, the third largest Jewish population center in Brazil.
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