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Polish Bishops Make Historic Apology
Reflecting native son Pope John Paul II's efforts to reach out to Jews, Poland's Roman Catholic bishops made a historic apology Sunday not only for a 1941 massacre of Jews in northeastern Poland, but also for wrongs committed by Catholics against Jewish compatriots during World War II.
About 100 bishops participated in the unprecedented ceremony, led by the head of the Catholic church in Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp.
Polish Catholic leaders expressed hope that what was termed an "apology to God" would be a landmark in reconciliation with Jewish groups who often accuse them of being too tolerant of anti-Semitism.
Jedwabne is a town in northeastern Poland where as many as 1,600 Jews were massacred in July 1941. Sunday's ceremony was prompted by recent revelations that Poles, not Nazi troops, did the killing there and in some neighboring towns.
After an hour of prayers and solemn religious music, Glemp finished the ceremony by reading a prayer written by the pope last year urging more worldwide understanding for the Jewish people.
About 2,500 mostly elderly Poles attended the ceremony in the massive All Saints' Church at the edge of the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto, where the city's Jews were herded under Nazi occupation.
Rabbi Michael Schudrich, leader of Poland's Jewish community of about 20,000 people, said the gesture had "the potential to be one more very important step" in reconciliation between Polish Catholics and Jews since the end of communist rule in 1989.
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