Interfaith initiatives are important to ensure that all major faith communities not become insular and isolated from the broader community that we all share.

Consider, for example, the work of the Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action, which offers programs, seminars, educational displays and public gatherings that promote respect, friendship and harmony among people of all faiths.

In addition, many faith groups in Edmonton sponsor their own programs that encourage understanding and a sharing of both unique and common experiences. In mid-March, the Ahymadiyya Muslim Women’s Association of Edmonton is holding its annual interfaith symposium, featuring presentations by representatives of the local Jewish, Sikh, Christian and Islamic communities.

As vital and encouraging as these interfaith contacts are, we still cannot lose sight of the fact that there are prominent members of some faith communities who are intolerant, and even hateful, of others.

We are unfortunately reminded of this by the recent controversy concerning Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson, who headed a Buenos Aires seminary and who held distorted, anti-Semitic views. In a widely publicized interview on Swedish television, Bishop Williamson essentially denied the Holocaust or, at least, denied the extent of the horrors visited upon European Jewry. He claimed that 200,000 or 300,000 Jews were murdered and not six million, and he denied that any Jews were gassed.

The bishop was excommunicated by the Church, not because of his anti-Semitic denials, but because of the manner of his consecration as a bishop. The Vatican subsequently lifted his excommunication.

As a result of his Holocaust denials, the bishop was removed from the seminary in Argentina and was expelled to his native England by the Argentine government. Bishop Williamson subsequently apologized, referring to the harm and hurt his remarks caused, but did not in any way retract his Holocaust denial. This was unsatisfactory to the Vatican.

On his return to England, it was learned that Bishop Williamson had contacted and sought advice from David Irving, the disgraced British anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying historian.

When Bishop Williamson was expelled from Argentina, the government announced that his hateful remarks had “deeply shocked Argentine society, the Jewish people and all of humanity.”

This obviously reflects the new Argentina, a nation with a large, vibrant, and healthy Jewish community of more than 200,000. But it wasn’t that long ago, in 1994, when the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 85 people and injuring more than 300. The subsequent investigation and prosecutions were widely criticized. Over the years, Iran and Hezbollah were implicated in the bombing.

However, the bombing reflects a long tradition of anti-Jewish sentiment in that country. This dates back to the period after World War II when Argentina was considered a safe haven for many Nazis fleeing prosecution, including probably the most infamous of all, Adolf Eichmann.

To this day, South America has experienced pockets of anti-Jewish sentiment. Currently, Venezuelan Jews are feeling the pressure of a government led by President Hugo Chavez. According to the U.S. Anti-Defamation League, a rise in anti-Semitism has been “fostered in large part by Chavez’s own rhetoric and that of his government institutions.” And, at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, some of the worst anti-Semitic “literature” originated in Brazil.

On a positive note, the official statement of the Argentine government on the expulsion of Bishop Williamson included the notion that Holocaust denial deeply shocks “all of humanity.” This represents a refreshing new message that will hopefully resound throughout that continent.

Perhaps the Williamson controversy represents somewhat of a failure of existing interfaith dialogue. However, as Canadian Jewish Congress Co-president Rabbi Reuven Bulka recently wrote in the Ottawa Citizen, “Jew and non-Jew alike rejected [Bishop] Williamson and his views… there has been great progress in Christian-Jewish understanding to the point that there is profound amity between the two religions. The Williamson affair proved that this profound amity is simultaneously unshakable.”

Clearly, such dialogue must continue. Interfaith co-operation fosters mutual respect and understanding among all faith communities and creates an atmosphere in which the aberrant voice of a Bishop Williamson will not be heard.