Editor:
We jointly express our profound sorrow on the passing of our dear friend, Msgr. Joseph Devlin.
Msgr. Devlin played a most important role in advancing interfaith relations throughout his career with non-Catholics, and the Jewish community in particular. Msgr. Devlin and Father Joseph Wallace together shepherded every step in the developing relationship between the two faith communities on behalf of the Diocese of Camden.
As a young priest, Msgr. Devlin was assigned by his bishop to participate in Vatican II which produced Nostra Aetate, the seminal statement of the Catholic Church that opened the doors to improved relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish and other non-Catholic faiths.
Msgr. Devlin became more closely involved with the South Jersey Jewish Community through its JCRC since the early 1980s. When there were terrorist attacks on Jewish communities, as at the Saturday morning synagogue service in Istanbul, Turkey in 1986 when 22 Jews at prayer were murdered, Msgr. Devlin participated in the community memorial service on behalf of the Diocese of Camden.
Many times over the decades Msgr. Devlin participated in the annual Holocaust and Kristallnacht Observances both in the South Jersey community and for the State of New Jersey. His knowledge, understanding and engagement across a wide spectrum of faith communities was recognized with interfaith leadership awards by the JCRC, the N.J. Commission on Holocaust Education and the Sister Rose Thering Endowment.
When the Jewish community, the JCRC, the Katz Jewish Community Center (JCC) or synagogues, needed an expert to help explain different aspects of Christianity, Msgr. Devlin was the go-to expert. He was a beloved and revered scholar and theologian.
The diocese and the Jewish community took a major step in developing a close fraternal relationship when they cosponsored the 25th anniversary program celebrating Nostra Aetate. From that, the JCRC and the diocese’s office of Ecumenical Relations established the Catholic Jewish Seminar, an annual event that then became the Catholic Jewish Institute of Understanding, two semesters of classes each year for the community examining subjects from Jewish and Catholic perspectives. Msgr. Devlin was on the planning committees of both educational projects and was a frequent teacher for both.
Out of the partnerships for the Seminar and the Institute developed the Catholic Jewish Agreement and the Catholic Jewish Commission, among the very first and few in the U.S. Msgr. Devlin was among the Jewish and Catholic leadership in the development of both efforts to bring the Catholic and Jewish communities closer together in fraternal cooperation and understanding.
When the diocese and Jewish community reached out to engage the local Muslim community in 2003-04, through the JCRC and the CJC, Msgr. Devlin once again was a part of that bridge-building effort. The JCRC helped arrange for one of Msgr. Devlin’s last international trips, an interfaith journey to Turkey, with a Turkish organization doing interfaith outreach.
Msgr. Devlin was a man with a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. As is said in the Jewish tradition, “May Msgr. Joe’s memory be for a blessing!”
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), the Catholic Jewish Commission (CJC) and the Jewish Catholic Muslim Dialogue (JCM).
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