Today, the world observes Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We remember in prayer the Jewish people and all those who were killed in the Holocaust.

And, we renew our commitment to live and share the teaching of the Church set forth by the 1965 Vatican II document “Nostra Aetate” or “In Our Time”:

” … in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone. …

“We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God. Man’s relation to God the Father and his relation to men his brothers are so linked together that Scripture says: ‘He who does not love does not know God’ (1 John 4:8).

“No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.

“The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to ‘maintain good fellowship among the nations’ (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men, so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven.”

The image above is “Angel with Candelabra,” a stained-glass window by Marc Chagall at Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d’Assy in France. It is found is the Paulist Press book “Chagall: The Stained Glass Windows.”