This Week

"Behold how good it is for brothers and sis-
ters to dwell together in peace."
— Psalm 133:1

ROBERT A. SKLAR
Editor

peaking from the Temple Shir
Shalom bima on behalf of the
Archdiocese of Detroit, Cardinal
Adam Maida sought forgiveness
for the Roman Catholic Church's failure
to defend the rights of Jews, especially in
the Holocaust.
For the first time from a Jewish pulpit,
the 70-year-old cardinal directly related
that he is "a member of a Church that
allowed the Jewish people to suffer and
to die."
He acknowledged "the faults and fail-
ings of the past — mistakes and sins
committed by individuals and by the
Church on every level."
"It is our hope and belief," he said,
"that an act of genuine repentance for the
tragedy that you have suffered, especially
in this past century, will lead to new
beginnings and a new relationship."
He issued this historic apology before
330 worshippers last erev Shabbat, two
days before Detroit Jewry's annual Yom
HaShoah observance.
"You have been a witness to us
through your generations of quiet suffer-
ing and acceptance," he said. "It is to our
shame and sorrow that we, in some way,
have been the agents that brought about
suffering."
He asked that the Church be forgiven
for "the times and ways that we have
brought suffering to the Jewish commu-
nity and to other individuals and groups
because of narrow judgment and misun-
derstanding."
Known for preaching ecumenism as
head of the Detroit-based Religious
Leaders Forum, Cardinal Maida last year
at Temple Beth El proclaimed, "We must
join our voices to make a difference in
our society." At that time, he expressed

007

•a,

a

a

Cardinal Maida apologizes

from the bima

for church's sins against Jews.

NI O

St

From a cardinal's apology to a
rabbi's challenge to a sur-
vivor's recounting, the local
Yom HaShoah observance took
many forms, which we review
today in a package of stories.

