ADL Honors Sister Rose Thering for Efforts To Repair Church's Teachings on Jews
New York, NY, May 19, 2005 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) honored Sister Rose Thering, the subject of the new documentary, "Sister Rose's Passion," with the ADL Cardinal Bea Interfaith Award in recognition of her life's work in repairing the Catholic Church's relations with the Jewish people and for fighting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
"There is not enough time, and there are not enough superlative adjectives to adequately describe what the life and work of Sister Rose Thering have meant to the world," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "She changed the course of history. She is a woman of valor who has brought enlightenment, honor, scholarship, and pure passion to remembering and teaching about the Holocaust, to battling the demon of anti-Semitism and to challenging the ignorance and prejudice and the teaching of contempt for Jews."
An American Dominican nun, Sister Rose challenged Catholic authorities all the way to Rome and played a seminal role in convincing the Second Vatican Council to repudiate the centuries-old charge of deicide against the Jewish people more than 40 years ago.
At 84, Sister Rose continues her energetic crusade against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. She recently is the subject of the 2005 Academy Award-nominated HBO/Cinemax short documentary film "Sister Rose's Passion" directed by Oren Jacoby, which tells the story of how this devout woman, raised in rural Wisconsin where there were no Jews, came to challenge 2,000 years of church teachings.
Thering oversees the Sister Rose Thering Endowment for Jewish Studies at Seton Hall University, where she remains on the faculty. She is also a member of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education and serves on the boards of many organizations.
ADL plans to use the documentary and her story in schools to further enhance education about the Catholic Church and its historic efforts to repair relations with the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
The ADL Cardinal Bea Interfaith Award was established to perpetuate the memory of Cardinal Bea, the enlightened German Jesuit scholar who deepened and enriched relations between Catholics and Jews. Cardinal Bea's efforts made possible the positive statement of Vatican Council II on Jews and Judaism. Past recipients of the award include John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York; the Most Rev. Francis John Mugavero, Archbishop of Brooklyn; Archbishop Justin Cardinal Rigali of St. Louis, Archbishop Adam Cardinal Maida of Detroit; and Bishop James W. Malone of Youngstown, Ohio.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
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