|
|
March 11, 2005/Adar I 30 5765, Volume 57, No. 28
Jewish-Catholic relations improving
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
HANK NEYER
Contributing Editor
"The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - like the God of Jesus Christ - is the living God who maintains close and salvific relations with his people," a possible successor to Pope John Paul II told a conference of Catholics and Jews in New York on Feb. 28.
The remarks Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice made to nearly 100 Jewish and Catholic leaders convened by the World Jewish Congress used new and explicit language; he expressed the sentiments of the pope, who has said Jews and Catholics are brothers who share a covenant with God.
Scola's comments, which adopted the language of Jewish prayer and Christian theology, also reveal the extent to which the Roman Catholic Church has transformed its outlook toward Jews in the last 40 years.
"Somebody who went to sleep 50 years ago and just woke up would be astounded to hear that," said David Elcott, U.S. director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee. "Almost no other church has anything comparable to that claim."
The conference came amid the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the document that revolutionized Catholic thinking and declared Jews not responsible for the murder of Jesus.
Here in Phoenix, Michelle Steinberg, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, welcomed the New York meeting.
"It focuses on the commonalities that exist between the two religions," Steinberg said.
"It just makes it easier to build those relationships, coalitions when you have those commonalities that you're highlighting instead of differences."
The conference, which hosted several possible successors to the pope, also came as worldwide news outlets monitor the pope's faltering health.
The pontiff himself has thanked Jews and members of other faiths for their support during his hospitalization.
The 84-year-old pope, who is convalescing from a tracheotomy last month, waved to a crowd from his window in Rome's Gemelli hospital on March 6. An aide read a pontifical message to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the weekly Sunday blessing. The pope expressed a "special recognition" to "believers of other faiths, notably Jews and Muslims" for the solidarity they have shown him during his illness.
For Jewish observers, the question is whether his successor will continue the advances made by the pope, who oversaw the establishment of full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
In a visit to Israel in 2000, he prayed at the Western Wall, inserting in its cracks a typewritten note asking forgiveness for those who have caused Jewish suffering and committing Catholics to "genuine brotherhood with the People of the Covenant."
Judging by this conference, Catholic officials are determined to fulfill that legacy.
In speeches to the group, both Cardinal Claudio Hummes, another possible successor to the pope, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, a Vatican representative, reaffirmed the principles of Nostra Aetate, according to the WJC.
"What inspires Cardinal Hummes very much is the declaration contained in Nostra Aetate that indeed the Jews were chosen by God, the chosen people, and that God never ever regretted this choosing," said Rabbi Henry Sobel of Brazil, translating for Hummes, to JTA.
It's "very important that Catholics and Jews work together in solidarity to help remedy the ills of the world," especially to promote peace, Hummes said, and added that Jews and Catholics must continue building understanding of one another.
For Scola, knowledge of the other leads to self-understanding.
For example, understanding the Passover seder sheds light on the Eucharist, just as the Hebrew Bible explains Christian liturgy, he told JTA.
In addition, the two faiths should work together to better the world, he said.
For Jews, the conference also marked the growing participation of Orthodox Jews.
Many Orthodox Jews had abstained from such dialogue because of the pre-Nostra Aetate ban on theological dialogue by the late Orthodox rabbinical leader Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, who was worried Jews might compromise their faith in an attempt to reach common understanding.
Rabbi Chaim Silver of Young Israel of Phoenix, an Orthodox synagogue, agreed with Soloveitchik's fear that the risk of dialoguing could lead to Jews compromising their faith.
"Judaism is first to Jews," Silver told Jewish News, adding, "We don't want to do anything that might compromise our relationship to our Torah, and our relationship to God."
On the other hand, he said he is "very happy that the Catholic Church is willing to dialogue with the Jews."
Israel Singer, an Orthodox Jew and chairman of the WJC's governing board, told JTA he once derided Catholic-Jewish meetings as an excuse for people to have themselves photographed with the pope.
His belief has changed, he said. "Mutual respect is something that we have learned from trying."
The Jews are looking for friends and allies around the world, he said.
Rabbi Peter S. Levi of Temple Chai of Phoenix, a Reform congregation, agrees.
"I'm a firm believer in interfaith relations between the Jewish community and the greater community, and certainly the Catholic Church is a significant part of that," Levi told Jewish News.
Speaking as a leader of the Jewish community, Levi said, "We're grateful whenever we have any group respecting Judaism as a viable and legitimate and meaningful path toward God.
"That's a wonderful thing - a great basis for us to start a relationship and conversation. But it's not just a conversation for getting to know each other, it's also a way to build a common grounding for us to move forward toward the redemption of this world."
Levi said Jews and Catholics share their commitment to social justice issues - such as genocide in Sudan, aiding tsunami victims in Southeast Asia, eradicating AIDS and malaria in Africa and dealing with immigration, education and health care issues here at home.
Monsignor Edward Ryle of the Phoenix Diocese echoed Levi's sentiments.
Speaking to Jewish News from his office, the Monsignor said both Catholics and Jews in the United States have a history of being very progressive on social justice issues, and "down the line we've been very, very closely together."
Ryle declared that the positive response from the Jewish and Catholic communities indicates, "We're on the right track."
He also thinks the pope's successor would continue the initiatives that have followed Vatican II.
According to Rabbi Yakov Dov Bleich, one of Ukraine's two chief rabbis, Catholics can help Jews on certain issues better than Jews can help themselves.
He pointed to the work that Catholics have done to help identify and recover mass Jewish graves in the former Soviet Union by drawing on Catholic witnesses from the time.
But the relationship is not without its sticking points.
For example, the pope's recent remark equating abortion with the extermination of the Holocaust angered the Anti-Defamation League.
The Holocaust "is something that defies analogy, that exists as a unique event," and drawing a comparison lessens its importance, said Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, the ADL's national director of interfaith affairs.
"Even if one were to hew to the Catholic" belief "that life begins at conception, this is not a wholesale declaration on the part of women to destroy fetuses" in the way Nazis killed Jews for being Jews.
Additionally, Scola's use of the word "salvific" in terms of the Jewish people could lead to misunderstandings, Bretton-Granatoor said.
Christians reach salvation through Jesus, while Jews find salvation by adhering to religious commandments, he said. "These are very important philosophical questions that will help define each community for the other."
|
|
