Fr. Edward Flannery devoted his life to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews, and to the study of anti-Semitism. In an interview in 1967, he said: "The anti-Semite, not the Jew, is the real Christ-killer. He thinks he's religious, but that's a self-delusion. Actually he finds religion so heavy a burden, he develops 'Christophobia.' He's hostile to the faith and has an unconscious hatred of Christ, who is for him, Christ the Repressor. He uses anti-Semitism as a safety valve for this hostility and is really trying to strike out at Christ.”
Edward H. Flannery (1912 – October 19, 1998) was a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, and the author of The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Anti-Semitism, first published in 1965 (Paulist Press, 2004). He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of a police officer. He studied at St. Charles College in Catonsville, St. Sulpice Seminary near Paris, and the Catholic University in Washington. He was ordained in 1937 and spent most of the next 30 years in the Diocese of Providence working as a pastor and chaplain as well as writing for the diocesan newspaper.
He was the first director of Catholic-Jewish Relations for the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, a position he held from 1967 to 1976.
In this capacity he spoke in hundreds of churches, synagogues and other settings to promote an understanding of the work of the Second Vatican Council and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops concerning the Church’s bond with the Jewish people.
He was President of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, a Consultant to the Holy See’s Secretariat of Inter-religious Affairs, Associate Director of the Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University, and Director of the Continuing Education of the Clergy for the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island.
Father Flannery was awarded honorary doctorates from several institutions, including Hebrew Union College/ Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati and Seton Hall University. He received the prestigious Nicholas and Hedy Munk International Brotherhood Award of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews and many other signs of esteem from Christian and Jewish Organizations.
Throughout his career, Reverend Flannery fought against the vicious virus called "anti-Semitism" and defended the State of Israel and the Jewish people against attacks on the local, national and international levels. Through his work he displayed great sensitivity to issues of the Holocaust and strong promotion of education of the history of anti-Semitism, well serving both the Jewish and Catholic communities.
Rabbi A. James Rudin, National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee, (who termed Father Flannery "one of this century's spiritual giants"), said “during Father Flannery's long and distinguished career, he helped build human bridges of mutual respect and understanding between Roman Catholics and Jews.”
During his decade of service (1967-1977) as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' first Director of Catholic-Jewish Relations, Father Flannery permanently put into place the sturdy foundations of a new and positive relationship between these two ancient faith communities. Father Flannery's book "shattered negative caricatures and stereotypes that had existed for centuries.
A better understanding of Flannery can be gained by reading some excerpts from his book The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Anti-Semitism, first published 1965; latest edition Paulist Press 2004.
In it he wrote: ''This book received its first impetus from a personal experience. One evening several years ago, I walked in New York City in the company of a young Jewish couple'' and within sight of ''the huge illuminated cross the Grand Central building displays at Christmas. The young lady declared: 'That cross makes me shudder. It is like an evil presence.' ''
Her comment made him think, he recalled. ''It soon became clear that her fearful reaction was the fruit of a knowledge which she, but not I, had -- a knowledge of the immense suffering undergone by her people at the hands of Christians for many centuries.''
At the outset, the author claims that the vast majority of even well-educated Christians have been relatively ignorant of what has happened to the Jews throughout history and the culpable involvement of many facets of the Church. Apart from a few recent publications, there is little about anti-Semitism in Christian history books or social studies. The author states that, by comparison, the Jews themselves are largely and acutely aware of their painful history and physical and verbal attacks in the present.
This book gives a thorough account of the history of the world's persecution of the Jews, without dwelling on the lurid details of the atrocities. He covers Pagan anti-Semitism in the Greek and Roman empires, the struggles between Judaism and the early church, Christian Anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages (looked at in the various countries of Europe), the age of the Ghetto, the rise of scapegoat Anti-Semitism in the modern, post religious world (particularly in Russia), leading to Hitler's New Paganism and the Holocaust, also economic/racial/social Anti-Semitism in America. He reviews how things stand today (at the time of the last revision) and finally considers the Roots of Anti-Semitism.
In relation to the Holocaust, which is commendably covered in itself, Flannery illustrates the sympathies for the Nazi regime and the `Final Solution' expressed by prominent Arab personages such as the close confident of Adolf Hitler, Haj Amir El Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem (an uncle to the late PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, whose family name was al-Husseini).
With reference to the modern day Middle East, Flannery covers what he calls the overt expression and practice of Arab anti-Semitism. He proceeds to describe how Arab propaganda, already so hostile to the existence of the State of Israel, has widened its focus to further include the Jewish people and their religion.
Flannery identified five strains of anti-Semitism:
• Political and economic anti-Semitism, giving as examples Cicero and Charles Lindberg;
• Theological or religious anti-Semitism, sometimes known as anti-Judaism;
• Nationalistic antisemitism, citing Voltaire and other Enlightenment thinkers, who attacked Jews for supposedly having certain characteristics, such as greed and arrogance, and for observing customs such as kashrut and shabbat;
• Racial anti-Semitism, as practised by the Nazis.
Here is the last paragraph of the book.
The tragic story this book has unfolded ends then in the deepest chambers of the spirit. For the Christian reader—for whom it was especially written—it is a tragedy in which Jesus participates, crucified again in the person of His people at the hand of many baptized in His name. The sin of anti-Semitism contains many sins, but in the end it is a denial of Christian faith, a failure of Christian hope, and a malady of Christian love. And was not this Christianity's supreme defection: that the Christian people to whom persecution was promised by its Master (John 16:2-4) was not the most persecuted people in Christendom, but rather was it the people from whom He came? And the ultimate scandal: that in carrying the burden of God in history the Jewish people did not find in the Christian churches an ally and defender but one of their most zealous detractors and oppressors? It is a story that calls for repentance.
An important point that comes out from this book is that although Anti-Semitism was discredited in the Holocaust and is less in evidence today, it has largely re-branded itself as Anti-Zionism. As such it is all around us, in the media and "liberal" thought. (see Israel in today's world ) Where Anti-Semitism sought to drive out the Jews from the lands where they lived as outsiders, Anti-Zionism refuses to accept them going to live in their own land and seeks to destroy them there.
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