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VATICAN-HOLOCAUST Dec-12-2006 (300 words) xxxi
Vatican says world must never forget Holocaust
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the Iranian government hosted a conference questioning the truth of Holocaust, the Vatican said the Nazis' Jewish victims must be remembered and the world must make a commitment to ensuring such a tragedy could never happen again.
The Dec. 11-12 Iranian conference, "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision," was called by the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said the Holocaust was a myth.
Speakers at the conference in Tehran included David Duke, former U.S. leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and several authors who have been sued or arrested in Europe for denying the Nazis' mass murder of European Jews.
The Vatican issued a statement Dec. 12 saying, "The past century witnessed the attempt to exterminate the Jewish people with the consequent killing of millions of Jews of all ages and social categories simply for the fact that they belonged to that people.
"The Shoah (the Holocaust) was an enormous tragedy, before which one cannot remain indifferent," the Vatican statement said.
The Catholic Church's attitude toward the Jewish community and its experience during the Second World War is one of "profound respect and great compassion," the statement said.
"The memory of those terrible facts must remain a warning for consciences with the aim of eliminating conflicts, respecting the legitimate rights of all peoples and calling for peace in truth and justice," the statement said.
The Vatican also noted that Pope John Paul II solemnly gave witness to the Catholic Church's position during his March 2000 visit to the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, and Pope Benedict XVI did so during his May visit to the German's Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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