Pope in Buenos Aires: Religions must build bridges, not division

Meeting leaders of Christian communities and religious traditions in Argentina's capital, Pope Leo XIV calls for dialogue, fraternity, and a shared commitment to human dignity, freedom, and hope.

Source: Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV has called on religious communities to work together to defend human dignity, promote freedom and nurture hope, noting that authentic prayer must translate into concrete gestures of fraternity, justice and peace.

“Whenever we pray, therefore, we must care for those who live alongside us, making the words we utter authentic through renewed fraternity,” he said.

The Pope was speaking on Monday afternoon at the Palacio San Martín in Buenos Aires, during a meeting with leaders of Christian communities and representatives of other religious traditions, on the second day of his visit to Argentina.

Argentina is the second country on his Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, taking place from 6 to 17 November. It is also the homeland of his predecessor, Pope Francis, whose commitment to dialogue and encounter Pope Leo recalled at the beginning of his address.

Dialogue and friendship

The Pope described dialogue and friendship as fundamental elements of Pope Francis' life, expressing his desire to strengthen them by building “new bridges” and “new paths of cooperation” in society.

He reaffirmed the bonds uniting Christians through baptism, the Church's spiritual ties with the Jewish people and its respect for what is “holy and true” in other religious traditions, recalling the Second Vatican Council's declaration Nostra Aetate.

Reflecting on Argentina's history, Pope Leo noted that the country's identity had been shaped by native peoples and successive waves of immigration, bringing different cultures and religious traditions.

Despite their differences, these communities learned to work together and contribute to the common good.

“Religions were never a cause of division, but rather a meeting point and a source of commitment to society,” he said.

Prayer, dignity and freedom

Pope Leo then reflected on prayer as a form of listening, saying that it expresses who people are before God and can help them rediscover silence and attentiveness amid the distractions of the digital age.

He identified three dimensions of religious life: religions as guardians of human dignity, expressions of freedom, and places in which hope can be cultivated.

Religions, he said, remind humanity that people are more than matter and that every person has a fundamental desire for life, goodness, truth and justice.

“Whenever we pray, therefore, we must care for those who live alongside us,” he said, urging believers to defend life “from conception to its natural end.”

He called for the promotion of human dignity in family life, education, work and care for the environment, and warned against what he described as the idols of domination, vainglory and war.

“We are not the god of others,” he said, adding that possessions do not make people divine and that there is only one Lord and Judge of history.

Religions as places of hope

In the third part of his address, Pope Leo described hope as an essential dimension of religious faith.

“When human beings speak to God, they open themselves to the future,” he said, adding that religious traditions connect generations through memory, expectation and promise.

The Pope also recalled the Latin meaning of the word religare, to bind or connect, saying that religious faith should inspire solidarity with those experiencing poverty, those who have lost the meaning of life and those committed to renewing the world through justice.

“Becoming prayer and proclamation, our language is thus transformed into eloquent charity, which inspires every action,” he said.

A shared commitment to peace

Concluding his address, Pope Leo said that religious communities' shared service helps build a better future for all. He recalled Saint John Paul II's appeal for constructive dialogue among religions, highlighting that genuine prayer should not lead to opposition or contempt for others, but to mutual understanding and respect.

Such dialogue, he said, does not require relativism or the blending of religious beliefs, but should deepen each person's responsibility to bear witness to their faith.

“May the Almighty,” he concluded, “bless our enthusiasm for humanity and inspire our commitment to peace.”

Pope praises the bond uniting the Catholic Church with the people of Israel

Source: Jewish Telegrph Agrncy

The interfaith gathering comes amid growing antisemitism around the world.

BUENOS AIRES – Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s spiritual bond with the people of Israel during an interfaith gathering in Buenos Aires, a statement that drew particular attention from Jewish leaders amid growing antisemitism in Europe and elsewhere.

“Following the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, I wish to reaffirm the spiritual bond that unites the Church with the people of Israel,” and “our sincere respect for what is holy and true in the different religious traditions,” the Pope said Nov. 9 during a meeting with representatives of various religious communities at San Martín Palace, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry headquarters. The Second Vatican Council, from 1962 to 1965, shaped the church’s strategies for dealing with the modern era.

“The statement was a pleasant surprise to us, especially at a time when antisemitism is resurfacing, as it is in Europe,” Isaac Sacca, chief rabbi of the Sephardic Community of Buenos Aires, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “That is very meaningful to our people,” he said.

“The meeting was moving on several levels,” added Sacca, who also is the president of Menora, a Jewish youth organization. “All the different religious communities that coexist in harmony and peace in Argentina came together and showed themselves as they truly are before the pope.”

Addressing around 100 religious leaders, Leo highlighted Argentina’s history of religious and cultural diversity, describing the country as a meeting point of different peoples and traditions.

“Hearing those words from Pope Leo himself, just a few meters away, was very comforting,” Rabbi Marcelo Polakoff, commissioner for interreligious dialogue of the World Jewish Congress in Latin America, told JTA. “Moreover, his use of language about honoring the People of Israel struck me as significant, since I don’t think that terminology is commonly used in Church documents. It gives his approach an even greater sense of closeness. He is clearly continuing the strong legacy of interreligious dialogue established by Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, and especially John Paul II.”

Leo praised Argentina’s tradition of welcoming immigrants. “Argentina’s national identity has taken shape as a melting pot of races, cultures and religions, formed by its Indigenous peoples and the many immigrants from different parts of the world who arrived in this land over the centuries, bringing with them their dreams and their faith,” Leo said.

“At first, they were Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and later many others. Despite their differences, they all learned to work together, to form families and communities, and to build settlements and villages, in an admirable blending of their traditions with local customs,” he added.

Rabbi Ariel Stofenmacher, rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, drew a connection between Nostra Aetate, the historic 1965 Vatican recalibration of the church’s relations with other religions, and Leo’s speech.

“The pope emphasized the need to strengthen relations with the people of Israel and with Judaism. He revisited the ideas behind Nostra Aetate, particularly the relationship between the Church and Judaism. He also expressed his gratitude for the spirit of brotherhood,” Stofenmacher said.

“I think Pope Leo is showing that he is a leader on a global scale, someone who is not afraid to address difficult issues and who puts social and family issues at the forefront,” added Stofenmacher, who is also rector of the Isaac Abarbanel University Institute.

In addition to religious authorities and leaders of rabbinical institutions, the pope also invited prominent representatives of Argentina’s Jewish community. Among those present were representatives of AMIA, the main Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, and DAIA, the political umbrella organization representing Argentina’s Jewish community.

“The pope emphasized at the meeting that religions are guardians of human integrity — that is, each person’s dignity in its spiritual, social, and communal dimensions,” AMIA chief rabbi Eliahu Hamra said. “We are united in defending that dignity and in upholding the value of every human being.” The interfaith gathering opened with a live orchestra playing a tango song from iconic composer Astor Piazzolla as religious leaders assembled and waited for the pope. It was a distinctly Argentine musical choice, rather than music associated with any particular religious tradition.

“There was a tango performance at the beginning, so there were no religious elements in the ceremony, precisely out of respect for all faiths, as I understand it. The whole event was a real pleasure, ” Rabbi Sacca told JTA.

“I believe we must remain engaged in this effort,” said Rabbi Polakoff. “At the World Jewish Congress, we presented the document Kishreinu, which was conceived as a Jewish response to Nostra Aetate. That was in November 2022. I believe we must continue working along those lines, and I think we have an exceptional partner in Leo XIV to do so.” The meeting concluded with a minute of silence for world peace and the victims of violence.

Monday’s meeting followed two earlier events in Buenos Aires. Pope Leo XIV first visited a residential care facility for people with disabilities on the outskirts of the city. He then celebrated Mass at Palermo Park, drawing an estimated crowd of more than 2 million people.

The pope’s four-day visit to Argentina began Sunday, Nov. 8, following his visit to Uruguay. It continued Tuesday in Córdoba province, where he celebrated Mass before returning to Buenos Aires. On Wednesday, he plans to visit the city of Luján for another Mass before departing for Lima, Peru, the final stop of his South American tour.

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At Buenos Aires forum, Latin American Jewish leaders confront antisemitism’s old roots and new forms

Jewish Telegrph Agrncy Source:

Panelists examined the impact of Oct. 7, rising anti-Israel sentiment and the politicization of Israel on the right and left.

BUENOS AIRES — In much of Latin America, antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories circulate among people who have never met a Jew. But since Oct. 7, antisemitism has taken on new urgency in the region, as Israel has become an increasingly charged presence in domestic politics, embraced by some politicians and rejected by others.

Those intertwined trends were at the center of a gathering in Buenos Aires, where more than 250 Jewish leaders and officials from 13 countries met to discuss how to combat antisemitism across Latin America.

The Latin American Forum to Combat Antisemitism, jointly organized by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Latin American Jewish Congress, took place Nov. 1. Throughout the forum, participants examined aspects of contemporary antisemitism, including its evolution in Latin America since Oct. 7, its spread across digital platforms, the distortion and trivialization of the Holocaust and the role of governments and the judicial system.

“If hatred has gone viral, let us make the democratic courage to defend historical truth an unstoppable force. History is not written by those who remain silent; it belongs to those who choose to keep the conversation going. That is why we are here,” said Ahuva Spieler Reshef, Israel’s ambassador to Argentina.

Speakers examined how prejudices imported during the Spanish conquest persist in the region today. When the Spanish conquistadors came to the Americas, they brought with them the prejudices they already held back home, said Marcos Peckel, director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia.

Those include the accusation that Jews killed Jesus, a belief that continued to circulate despite the Catholic Church’s repudiation of collective Jewish responsibility through the Second Vatican Council’s 1965 Nostra Aetate declaration.

Conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world can thrive without any personal acquaintance with Jewish life, Peckel said. He pointed to an entry in the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary associating the word “Jew” with “miserly” as an example of prejudice preserved by an institution that helps shape the Spanish language. (Two years after a judge’s order, the Spanish dictionary still defines ‘Jewish’ as ‘miserly.’”)

“In Colombia, someone warning another person not to cheat them might use the expression ‘No me haga la judía’ [‘Don’t make me the Jew’ or ‘Don´t pull a Jewish one on me’], a phrase that associates Jews with dishonesty,” said Peckel, who is also an executive member of the World Jewish Congress. “And probably people who repeat these prejudices and conspiracy theories about Jewish power may never have met a Jewish person.”

A number of participants warned that anti-Israel sentiments frequently crossed into open anti-Jewish intimidation in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and the war that followed. Fernando Lottenberg, the Organization of American States’ commissioner to monitor and combat antisemitism, compared the situation in the region pre-Oct. 7 to Gabriel García Márquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” In the novel, an entire town allows a murder to take place without making any serious attempt to save or even warn the victim, despite knowing that the killing is imminent.

“The warning signs of antisemitism in Latin America were already there,” said Lottenberg, a Brazilian lawyer. “It took Oct. 7 for things to reach an extraordinary scale. Now Zionism has become a dirty word.”

Meanwhile, Israel has found growing support, primarily on the right. “We have seen election campaigns in which candidates campaign with Israeli flags. Israel, a country thousands of kilometers away, has become part of Latin American election campaigns,” Peckel said.

Israeli flags could be seen during the election campaign events of Javier Milei in Argentina, Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia and Flavio Bolsonaro in Brazil. “But it has also become a partisan issue, and that is complicated. The right supports Israel; the left opposes Israel. It is almost black and white. Many Jews come from the left. Jews helped build left-wing movements. Yet today, the left is slamming the door in our faces,” Peckel added.

Lottenberg urged the adoption across Latin America of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which includes several criteria indicating how criticism of Israel intersects with antisemitism.

“When we began this work at the OAS, four countries in our hemisphere had adopted it: the United States, Canada, Uruguay and Argentina,” Lottenberg added. “Today, there are 11.” They include the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama.

Lottenberg stressed the importance of national anti-discrimination laws, saying, “The protection of every minority is related to the core of the democracy and fortunately in our region there is more democracy, increasingly more democratic governments.”

Fabiana Loguzzo, Argentina’s representative to the IHRA, said in a separate panel that officials in the region sometimes viewed the alliance’s work in strengthening Holocaust education as primarily concerned with Europe.

And yet Argentina holds the IHRA presidency this year, and in outlining its vision for its term noted how it and other Latin American countries harbored Nazi war criminals after World War II. Argentina is Latin America’s only full member of the IHRA. Uruguay has observer status, while Paraguay has expressed interest in joining.

“Argentina believes we must bring the memory of the Shoah to our region, rather than keeping it only in the countries where it took place,” Loguzzo said. “That is why we established the motto ‘Expanding the Frontiers of Memory,’ bringing Holocaust remembrance to regions beyond the countries where it occurred.”

According to Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, “the rise of antisemitism after Oct. 7 and its new manifestations in our region are a warning sign that calls for much more than analysis. They demand commitment, cooperation and coordinated action.

“Incidents targeting Jews are not, in themselves, what make our societies antisemitic. A society becomes antisemitic when those incidents are not confronted, when they are not prevented, and when people remain silent and indifferent,” he added.