[30 September 1997: The Church of France demands a pardon for the Jewish. Impetus of Cardinal Lustiger and receipt of the event]

Abstract

The 30th of September 1997, jews and catholics gathered together at Drancy - the place of departure for trains deporting people to Auschwitz - to hear the declaration of repentance of the Church of France. Responding to the call made by Pope John Paul 11 in 1994, it recognized that it had failed in its "mission of educating consciences" in maintaining silence during the Shoah. That highly publicized act of repentance was noteworthy among both jews and catholics. By its contents, the Bishops' text called everyone's conscience into question. In underlining collective involvement, it called into question the commonly admitted perception of individual responsibility. The taking of such an initiative fell to Cardinal Lustiger and the Episcopal Committee for relations with Judaism. Brought to fruition by a relatively restrained number of persons, that act of repentance was a springboard for introducing the universal Church of Rome into a procedure of recognition of "shared responsibility".