Cardinal George Pell said 'the little Jewish people' were shepherds who lacked intellectual development during a debate with atheist Richard Dawkins.
He went on to claim that Germans had suffered more than the Jews during the horrors of the holocaust in the Second World War.
The remarks came during a televised debate with Dawkins on Australian TV in which the pair became locked in a heated discussion on religion and evolution.
'I've got a great admiration for the Jews but we don't need to exaggerate their contribution in their early days,' Cardinal Pell said during the debate on ABC television.
'They weren't intellectually the equal of [the Egyptians or Persians] – intellectually, morally ... The poor – the little Jewish people, they were originally shepherds. They were stuck. They're still stuck between these great powers.'
Cardinal Pell said Jews had been stuck between the Egyptians and Babylonians, and that this reflected their intellectual development. He said this included Jesus.
The religious leader went on to suggest that Jews had not suffered as much as the German people during and after the holocaust.
Asked why god permitted the Holocaust to occur, he said it was a 'terrible mystery' why the Germans had been subsequently 'punished'. Read on and comment » | Rick Dewsbury | Thursday, April 12, 2012
