ROME — The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, has condemned an anti-Semitic hacking of an online memorial ceremony in honor of a prominent Italian-Jewish writer.
“In firmly condemning this new act of hatred, the Church in Italy reiterates the need to work together — with all Christian Confessions and believers of other religions — to foster a culture of encounter and friendship,” Cardinal Bassetti said this week in a letter to Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI).
The cyber-attack interrupted an online event last Sunday in memory of Amos Luzzatto, an Italian-Jewish doctor and essayist, who died in September 2020 at the age of 92. In the midst of the event, the hacker posted images of Hitler, blasphemies, anti-Semitic slogans, pornographic scenes, and various other offensive images along with loud rap music.
In his letter, Cardinal Bassetti decried the “deplorable” attack, while reaffirming the Catholic Church’s “solidarity and closeness” to the Italian Jewish communities, along with the cosponsors of last Sunday’s event, namely the Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities (SAE), the Evangelical Lutheran Community, and the “Beit” House of Jewish culture in Venice.
Citing Pope Francis, the president of the CEI reiterated in his letter that “as pastors, we are convinced that, in the face of growing intolerance that generates forms of racism and contempt, it is necessary to respond with formation, mutual knowledge, and dialogue, aware that this is the only way to build a more just and supportive society.”
“Our commitment becomes a challenge and an opportunity for this time,” Bassetti said.
The Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities also issued a press release, noting how “in a period in which it is difficult for people to gather, violence finds other channels to express itself.”
“The memory of a man who dedicated his life to justice, dialogue, caring for and meeting human beings has been offended and humiliated,” the SAE said.
The SAE said that “the embarrassment of the organizers for not having raised sufficiently selective telematic barriers is understandable.”
“There is also shame. They should feel it, but we feel it instead,” the statement declared. “They, on the contrary, will boast of the enterprise. Such phenomena were not unknown to us, but it is one thing to hear them reported, another to suffer them directly without being able to stop it.”
Therefore, “we are dejected but not resigned,” it said.
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