Anti-Semitic Leader Rebuked by Catholic Bishop
A man who has run a virulently anti-Semitic âCatholicâ group for 14 years has been told to clean up his act by church officials contacted by the Intelligence Report.
Robert Sungenis, who founded and heads Catholic Apologetics International (CAI), was in the magazine edition released in January, along with other anti-Semitic individuals and institutions involved in the âradical traditionalist Catholicâ movement, whose precepts are rejected by the Vatican. The Report later sent a letter to Sungenisâ bishop in Harrisburg, Pa., detailing Sungenisâ anti-Semitic activities. Many other concerned Catholics and organizations have done likewise.
The church responded with alacrity. According to a July 31 he posted on CAIâs website entitled âCatholic Apologetics International and its Teachings on the Jews", Sungenis was contacted by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades and later met with Rhoadesâ vicar general, the Very Rev. William J. King, and the Rev. James Massa, executive director for ecumenical and inter-religious affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Afterward, Sungenis wrote that CAIâs âhard-line positions regarding the Jewsâ had been âoften expressed in an ill-advised mannerâ and promised to change.
âCAI is in the process of removing all the content on its website concerning the Jews in order to make the initial adjustments in complying with my bishopâs directive,â he wrote. âIf in the future we write any new material on the Jews, it will always be with the required due diligence, as if the bishop were present with us.â
Sungenis, based in State Line, Pa., is one of the hardest-line figures of the radical traditionalist Catholic movement, which generally has rejected the Vaticanâs efforts to reconcile with Jews and other faiths. Among other things, Sungenis in 2002 wrote a 33,000-word screed attacking the Jews that led to him being thrown off Eternal Word Television Network, a Catholic cable station. Elsewhere, he has written of âJews, Judaism and Israelâ are conspiring to make Satan the ruler of the earth.
Despite the rebuke, Sungenis did not back down all the way. He wrote that the âJews, as a race, are no longer the âchosen peopleâ of God,â and added that they âhave been blinded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by their own doing.â Still, he promised to adopt the âmore conciliatory approachâ that is today âin vogue.â