The National Catholic Register portal reports on the death of Abraham Foxman, longtime national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who died on May 10, 2026, at age 86. The article recounts how Foxman, born in Poland in 1940, was saved during the Holocaust by his Polish Catholic nanny, Bronisława Kurpi, who hid him, had him baptized, and raised him as her own son for four years while his Jewish parents were confined to the Vilnius Ghetto. The piece emphasizes Foxman’s lifelong gratitude toward Kurpi, his belief that her example proved “ordinary people can choose to act righteously,” and how his rescue shaped his adult conviction that “interfaith dialogue and education are key to fighting antisemitism.” The article quotes several associates praising Foxman’s work in Jewish-Catholic relations, his bond with John Paul II, and his admiration for *Nostra Aetate*, the Vatican II declaration that repudiated collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s death. While the genuine heroism of Bronisława Kurpi deserves recognition, the article exploits this moving story as a vehicle for the post-conciliar narrative of uncritical Jewish-Catholic “dialogue” that systematically obscures the Church’s immutable missionary mandate toward the Jewish people.
The Heroism of Bronisława Kurpi: A Catholic Act in a Pagan World
There is no question that Bronisława Kurpi performed an act of extraordinary courage. She risked her life to save a child from the Nazi genocide — a child who, by the laws of that time, was marked for extermination. Her motivation, as described in the article, was simple and profoundly human: “She saw me as a human being.” This is the natural law written on every heart, as St. Paul teaches: “For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law, these, having not the law, are a law to themselves: who show the work of the law written in their hearts” (Romans 2:14-15). Kurpi’s act was heroic, and God, who sees in secret, will render to her according to her works.
However, Kurpi’s personal heroism — and Foxman’s gratitude for it — must be carefully distinguished from the ideological framework into which the article places it. The genuine goodness of an individual act does not validate the theological conclusions drawn from it by those who have abandoned the faith.
The Baptism of Abraham: A Grace Obscured by Modernist Relativism
The article notes that Kurpi “renamed him Henryk, had him baptized at a local church, and raised him as her own son for four years.” From the perspective of Catholic theology before 1958, this baptism was not merely a disguise — it was a supernatural reality. Through baptism, the child Abraham received sanctifying grace, was incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, and became an adopted son of God. The Church has always taught that “unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
Yet the article treats this baptism as nothing more than a tactical measure — a clever ruse to hide a Jewish boy’s identity. There is no mention of the eternal significance of what was done to this child’s soul. The modernist mentality, which pervades the conciliar sect and its media organs, cannot acknowledge that the baptism of a Jewish child is an act of supreme charity because it concerns the child’s eternal salvation, not merely his physical survival. For the Church of all times, the salvation of souls is the supreme law (salus animarum suprema lex). The article’s silence on this point is deafening and reveals the depth of the anthropological revolution that has replaced the supernatural order with mere humanitarianism.
“Interfaith Dialogue” as a Substitute for the Missionary Mandate
The article’s most revealing passages concern Foxman’s adult convictions. We are told that “being saved by a Catholic profoundly shaped his belief that interfaith dialogue and education are key to fighting antisemitism,” and that Foxman “believed that if people were educated and learned that there were people who saved Jews’ lives, that people could change for the better.” Rabbi David Rosen is quoted as saying Foxman’s experience “animated his conviction that there has to be cooperation and collaboration among religions” and that “the best way to advance the welfare of Jews was to have a pluralistic society.”
This is the language of the conciliar revolution, and it is theologically catastrophic. The Church has never taught that “cooperation among religions” is a path to peace. On the contrary, Pope Pius XI, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to exclude all other forms of worship” (Proposition 77), and that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16). The Church of Christ is the one true ark of salvation, and “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The article presents Foxman’s belief in “pluralistic society” as though it were a natural and noble consequence of his rescue. In reality, it is the fruit of the post-conciliar apostasy that replaced the Church’s missionary mandate with a sentimental ecumenism. The true response of a Catholic to the Holocaust is not “interfaith dialogue” but the recognition that every soul — Jewish or Gentile — needs the one true Faith for salvation. As Our Lord commanded: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
The Cult of John Paul II and the Scandal of Nostra Aetate
The article invokes Foxman’s “close bond with Pope St. John Paul II” and the significance of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II declaration that repudiated the accusation of collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s death. Rabbi Rosen describes Foxman’s reception at the Vatican as “a sense of the triumph of the Jewish people and history.”
Here the article reveals its true ideological colors. John Paul II — the apostate who kissed the Koran, who prayed in the synagogue, who placed his papal tiara on the altar of the United Religions Initiative — is presented as a figure of reconciliation. Nostra Aetate, the conciliar document that opened the floodgates to religious indifferentism, is treated as an unambiguous good. Yet the Council of Florence (1441) defined infallibly that “those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before the end of life the same are joined to the Church.” The Church has no authority to contradict this dogma. A document that implies the opposite — that Jews need not be “joined to the Church” for salvation — is not a development of doctrine but a betrayal of it.
The article’s silence on the theological content of Nostra Aetate is deliberate. It does not ask whether the document is compatible with the perennial magisterium. It simply assumes that the conciliar novelties are true and good, and it uses Foxman’s emotional story to reinforce that assumption.
The Trauma of the Hidden Child and the Absence of the Supernatural
The article describes the psychological trauma Foxman endured: learning at age 6 that he was Jewish, the confusion of having been raised Catholic, the spitting at Jews in the ghetto, the bitter custody battle, the estrangement from Kurpi. These are heartbreaking details, and they deserve compassion.
Yet the article treats this trauma purely in naturalistic, psychological terms. There is no mention of the state of Foxman’s soul, no consideration of whether he received the sacraments after being reclaimed by his parents, no acknowledgment that the Church he was baptized into — the true Church, not the conciliar sect — claims him as one of her own. The entire analysis is reduced to the horizontal plane of human emotions and social relations. This is the hallmark of modernism: “the omission of supernatural matters is the gravest accusation.”
The article does not ask the only question that matters from the perspective of eternal salvation: Is Abraham Foxman in the state of grace? Does he profess the Catholic faith? These questions are not asked because the modernist mentality considers them impolite, intolerant, or irrelevant. But for the Church of Christ, they are the only questions that matter.
The Manufactured Narrative: Righteous Gentiles as Prophets of Pluralism
The article concludes with Foxman’s wistful reflection: “If [only] we could clone her goodness…” This sentimental ending encapsulates the article’s true purpose. It is not primarily about honoring Bronisława Kurpi — whose heroism is real but whose memory is being instrumentalized. It is about constructing a narrative in which the “goodness” of individual Christians rescuing Jews becomes the foundation for a new religion of pluralism, dialogue, and mutual respect among all faiths.
This is the religion of the conciliar sect, and it is not the religion of Jesus Christ. The Church has always honored the Righteous Gentiles — those non-Christians who, guided by natural law, acted with heroic virtue. But she has never pretended that their natural virtue is a substitute for supernatural faith, or that their good deeds justify a “pluralistic society” in which all religions are treated as equally valid paths to God.
Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, proclaimed that “the Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men” and that “men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.” The reign of Christ the King admits of no pluralism. There is one Faith, one Baptism, one Church. The article’s vision of a world where Jews and Catholics “cooperate” as equal partners in a pluralistic order is not the vision of the Catholic Church. It is the vision of the synagogue of Satan.
Conclusion: Gratitude Without Apostasy
Bronisława Kurpi saved a child’s life. For this, she deserves honor and prayers. But her heroism does not validate the post-conciliar apostasy. The conciliar sect and its media organs exploit stories like Foxman’s to promote a false narrative of Jewish-Catholic reconciliation that is built on the ruins of Catholic dogma. The true expression of gratitude for Kurpi’s sacrifice is not “interfaith dialogue” but the proclamation of the Gospel — to Jews and Gentiles alike — that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him.
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16). This is the message the article refuses to deliver. And that silence is its most damning indictment.
Source:
Abraham Foxman Never Forgot the Catholic Woman Who Saved His Life (ncregister.com)
Date: 29.05.2026