对德国犹太人中央委员会的讲话

1996年6月23日，德国柏林

各位嘉宾，各位兄弟：

It is with pleasure and a sense of gratitude that I avail myself of the opportunity to meet with you again on this my third visit to Germany . 我们今天的会议在柏林举行, 在这个城市, which the National Socialists made the center of their criminal dictatorship and which until very recently endured enormous suffering as a consequence of that dictatorship; a meeting of this kind is of special importance.

尤其是柏林的犹太社区, 是什么对这座城市的文化和学术生活产生了如此强烈的影响, 在国家社会主义的黑暗时代遭受了巨大的损失，变得非常小. 尽管如此，它仍然非常活跃，这无疑是希望的迹象.

Based on their calling and their history the Jewish people have been uniquely singled out to make known God's desire for the salvation of all mankind (see Dei Verbum, 14). The unimaginable suffering your people have endured provides a horrible example of the evil that can occur when man in overweening pride and arrogance distances himself from God and the commandments. The Jewish people share with Christians the belief that God is the creator of the world and the Lord of the universe and that man was created in his image, 正如圣经第一卷所写的：“神就照着自己的形像造人。, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”(创.1:27)

This sameness with God's image underlies the inviolable dignity of man and the human rights that derive from this dignity. 因此，对上帝的尊重和人的尊严是紧密相连的. The oppression experienced during the Nazi regime of terror showed that without respect for God respect for the dignity of man is lost. 由于那恐怖统治的结果，有许多人提出关于上帝的问题, 是谁允许那场可怕的灾难发生的. But even more unsettling was the realization of what man is capable of when he does not respect God and what kind of face humanity can take on without God.

今天教会纪念两位神父, 许多人的代表, Karl Leisner和Bernard Lichtenberg, who on the basis of their faith resisted the inhuman ideology of National Socialism and paid for their resistance with their lives. 是教堂执事伯纳德·利希滕贝格, 特别是, 谁见证了上帝赐予所有人类的尊严. 在他们的见证中，我们看到那看似无力的力量, 认识神和神所认识的人的能力. When he sees the sufferings of his chosen people in slavery, God says "I know their sorrows" (Ex.3:7). 我们在他们的见证中发现了这句话的深刻含义 维克多在文库利斯 （债券中的胜利者）, 哪个适用于两者, and we understand what Karl Leisner wrote in his diary: "If I can withstand the scrutiny of God's judgment, 那我还有什么好怕男人的?"

Bernard Lichtenberg saw with his own eyes what man is capable of doing to his fellow man when, 11月9日至10日, 1938, 他目睹了对犹太人的恐怖屠杀. That evening he said from the pulpit of Saint Hedwig's Cathedral: "Outside the temple is burning - it, 太, 是礼拜堂吗." And he began praying publicly every evening in thecathedral "for the persecuted non-Aryan Christians, 为犹太人”. 在接下来的几年里，他也为“集中营里的囚犯”祈祷, 为了数百万无名无国籍的难民, 为伤者着想, 双方的士兵都在牺牲和战斗, for the bombed cities in friendly and enemy territory" (taken from the minutes of an interrogation dated October 25, 1941). 两年后，他在被送往达豪集中营的途中死亡 .

我们背负着回忆的重担. But today we are also reminded of the precious historical fact that Bernard Lichtenberg was not alone in his support of those persecuted by the National Socialist regime. 这一事实反映了许多天主教徒的承诺, 冒着被杀的危险, 单独行动或集体行动以提供帮助, 经常秘密地这样做. 这还包括.e. 抗议和牧师的声明, on the part of the Church hierarchy to try to prevent the inhuman Nazi system from carrying out its horrible deeds.

Representative of the many who offered both resistance and assistance let us call to mind someone who lived 在这个城市, Margarete大梁, whose "Relief Agency for Non-Aryans" attempted to protect fellow human beings from the National Socialists; let us call to mind Cardinal Konrad von Preysing, 柏林主教, 他竭尽全力支持抵抗希特勒政权, 还有Maria Terwiel, a young woman who helped Jewish fellow citizens by supplying them with identification papers and food rationing cards and who was sentenced to death for "assisting the enemy".

Even though historians have shown that there were many priests and lay Catholics who turned against the terror regime and that numerous forms of resistance arose in the everyday lives of the people, 然而，反抗的人太少了. 今天，我们都对这些人表示感谢和深切的敬意. 他们的所作所为和他们的记忆将永远不仅仅是我们永恒的榜样. At the same time they are an appeal to Christians and Jews to join together in fighting for the dignity of all human beings wherever this dignity continues to be or is again being threatened. This includes 特别是 the fight against any form of anti-Semitism so that a phenomenon like the Shoah can never occur again.

关于我4月13日去罗马犹太教堂的事, 1986, I pointed out "that the Church of Christ discovers its 'bond' with the Jewish tradition by reflecting on its own mystery. 对我们来说，犹太宗教并不是什么“外在的”东西,，而是在某种程度上属于我们自己宗教的“内在”部分. 因此，我们与犹太宗教的关系不同于与其他任何宗教的关系.“进一步加强这种关系仍然是教会的主要利益所在. In this connection the Second Vatican Council called for an intensive dialogue between the two religions aimed at "promoting mutual knowledge and respect." This dialogue is to be supplemented by a "dialogue of life through which believers of different religions bear witness before each other in daily life to their own human and spiritual values, and help each other to live according to those values in order to build a more just and fraternal society" (Redemptoris该机构, 57). The Church in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany will be making a special effort to promote a dialogue of this kind. It has already shown how much this dialogue means to it through a wide range of different activities.

And it has been happy to note that the Jewish congregations have not only viewed these efforts sympathetically, 他们的反应是给予亲切和积极的支持.

A message of life is issuing forth from this city today aimed at achieving the co-existence of Jews and Christians in peace and mutual understanding, 一种不排斥其他信仰的人的生活. 与此同时，目标是承担共同的责任，塑造一个人道的未来.

今天，我们的赞美和感谢是直接献给上帝的. 我们也直接向他请求，请他祝福我们共同的事业和努力. May it be granted to Germany and to the rest of Europe that they will resist the forces of death, 他们会敞开心扉接受生命的信息, 在新希望的旗帜下迈向第三个千年.

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