Logo Polskiego Radia

A Catholic homage to Holocaust victims

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 24.06.2013 12:25
A unique concert took place Sunday night in front of the Door of Death to the WW II Nazi German Birkenau concentration camp, close to Auschwitz.

Cierpienie
Cierpienie Niewinnych concert: photo - PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk

The Symphony Orchestra of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic renewal group, performed ‘The Suffering of the Innocents’, described by its composer, Kiko Argüello, the initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, as a “celebration in honour of the millions of victims of the Holocaust and of all the innocent victims of our days and an attempt to bridge the gap between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people”.

The concert was attended by Polish and foreign cardinals including Stanisław Dziwisz of Kraków, Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna and Paolo Romeo of Palermo, as well as prominent Jewish leaders - Rabbi Greenberg, former president of the Jewish Life Network and the Steinhardt Foundation, Rabbi Rosenbaum, Secretary General of the Council of Rabbis of North America, and Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations and in charge of relations with the Holy See.

In his highly emotional address preceding the concert, Rabbi Rosen described the performance as “an act of love and reconciliation between Christians and Jews’ and Cardinal Dziwisz said that the event is a ‘poignant lament against the suffering of the innocents, of which there is no lack today in many corners of the world”.

The symphony, performed by a 100-member orchestra and a 100-member choir from Madrid conducted by Pau Jorquera, was introduced by Kiko Argüello, who explained every movement of the work: Gethsemane, Lament, Forgive Them, The Sword, Shema Israel and Resurrexit.

Over the past two years the Nocatechumenal Way’s Orchestra has performed the work in Jerusalem, Galilee, Bethlehem, Paris, Madrid, Boston, New York, Chicago and Dusseldorf.

On Tuesday, the work will be performed in Lublin, eastern Poland, where Kiko Argüello will receive an honorary doctorate from the city’s Catholic University (KUL). (mk/pg)

tags: Auschwitz
Print
Copyright © Polskie Radio S.A About Us Contact Us