“Unfortunately, there has been a rise in recent years of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic rhetoric in our society,” said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne —South Bend. “Further, there have been incidents of violence incited by hateful speech about Jews. The Church has firmly condemned such rhetoric and violence.” The Algemeiner Journal reported that the bishop’s words were “an oblique but thoroughgoing rebuke to the Jew-hatred” promoted by a writer who lives in his diocese.