Bishop Mixa attacked by leader of Bavarian Jewish Community

Empörung über Mixa - ''Jetzt ist ein klärendes Wort der Kirche nötig'' - Bayern - sueddeutsche.de

"Now is a word of explanation is needed from the Church "

Josef Schuster, the President of the Jewish communities in Bavaria says that Mixa’s speech is ignoble.
The recent statements of the Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa produce on the Jewish side incomprehension and anger. Josef Schuster, the President of the Jewish religious community in Bavaria, sees in Mixa’s words a deliberate provocation.

SZ: What do you say when Walter Mixa compares the abortion with the Holocaust?
Josef Schuster: I is not stop the language. Mixa is not the first Catholic priests, such a comparison draws. Obviously, some in the Catholic Church are not in a position to learn from the mistakes of other dignitaries. Joachim Meisner at least apologized afterwards.

SZ: Bishop Walter Mixa, in Dinkelsbühl distanced himself from Holocaust denier Richard Williamson.
Schuster: But as Mixa formulated this, it is simply ignoble: first to say SSPX member Richard Williamson was the evil, and then in an even supposedly more elegant way to relativise the Holocaust.

SZ: Was that a gaffe?
Schuster: No, that was no coincidence. A bishop is a man who has a proven intellect. Such things are not said without consideration, but very deliberately.

SZ: Should there be consequences from the Jewish standpoint?
Schuster: Now a word of explanation is really needed from the leaders of the Catholic Church in Germany - and soon.

SZ: Maybe the Catholic Church in Germany thinks like Walter Mixa - or is Mixa a specifically Bavarian phenomenon?
Schuster: There are indeed differences between the German and Bavarian level. Unlike the rest of Germany,the reaction of the Bavarian bishops in the Williamson case was not quite so obvious and clear.

SZ: So from your perspective at the time Archbishop Marx should find clear words?
Schuster: I'm very excited. On Sunday in Munich, the “Week of Brotherhood” opened of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation . The keynote speaker is Archbishop Marx. I'm really excited!

SZ: On the Jewish side, there are some who would prefer to stay away from “The Week of Brotherhood” - because of the mild reaction in the case of Williamson.
Schuster: Parties participate in the “Week of Brotherhood” who have an interest in the coexistence of religions. It would be my opinion, not right to boycott them. But we hope from the chairman of the Bavarian Bishops' Conference, clear words - especially in the Mixa case.

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