During the general audience on October 28, the Holy Father spoke out against recent expressions of anti-Semitism and xenophobia. The Pope spoke in Italian as follows:

I would now like to express a word of fraternal solidarity to the members of the Jewish people. Today, in fact, is the anniversary of the promulgation of Vatican II's Declaration Nostra Aetate on the Church's relations with non-Christian religions, and in a special way with the descendants of "Abraham's stock." In addition, last week marked the close of the solemn festivities for the beginning of the year according to the Jewish calendar with the celebration of Simhath Torah, the Exultation for the [divine] Law."

I mention these facts as I bear in my heart the sadness over reports of attacks and profanations which for some time have been offending the memory of the victims of the Shoah in the very places which witnessed the suffering of millions of innocent people. As the Council teaches, and as I myself repeated in the Synagogue of Rome, the Church "deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews"
[Nostra Aetate, n. 4].

More generally, in the face of the recurrent episodes of xenophobia, racial tension and extreme, fanatical nationalism, I feel it is my duty to emphasize that every form of racism is a sin against God and humanity, since every human person bears the stamp of the divine image.

October 28, 1992

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