Pope Francis

Dialogika Resources

General Audience remarks on antisemitism

... The Acts of the Apostles narrates that Paul, tireless evangelizer that he is, after his stay in Athens, carries on with the race to bring the Gospel to the world. The new stage of his missionary journey is Corinth, capital of the Roman province of Achaia, a commercial and cosmopolitan city, thanks to the presence of its two important seaports. As we read in chapter 18 of Acts, Paul finds hospitality with a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla (or Prisca), who had been forced to move from Rome to Corinth when the emperor Claudius ordered the expulsion of the Jews there (see Acts 18:2).

Here I would like to add a parenthesis. The Jewish people have suffered so much in history. They have been expelled, persecuted ... And, in the last century, we saw so many, so many brutalities that they did to the Jewish people and we were all convinced that this was over. But today, the habit of persecuting Jews begins here and there to be reborn. Brothers and sisters, this is neither human nor Christian. Jews are our brothers! And they should not be persecuted. Understand?  ...