On Nov. 21, just one week before Thanksgiving, Bishop Dennis Sullivan will meet with the local Jewish and Muslim communities. Since he has arrived here in Camden as our bishop, he has supported every outreach to our separated Christian family and our interreligious friends. As chief shepherd, he models for the faithful the call, by virtue of our common baptism, to work toward Christian unity and to foster good relations with those who share with us the faith of Abraham.
Bishop Sullivan will meet with the leadership of the local Jewish community at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill. He will meet with the leadership of the Jewish Federation and discuss with them the inner workings of the federation, our past relations with the Jewish community here in South Jersey and our hopes for the future. He will be briefed on the work of the Catholic – Jewish Commission of Southern New Jersey and the Formal Agreement of Understanding between our communities. He also will be given a tour of the facility.
After meeting with the local Jewish community, Bishop Sullivan will go to the mosque in Voorhees to meet with the Muslim community. This part of the bishop’s day is open to the general public. The program will begin with refreshments at the Muslim American Community Association Mosque at 3 Lafayette Ave., Voorhees.
The visit will include a formal installation of the Catholic – Muslim Commission of Southern New Jersey’s Agreement of Understanding at the mosque. The bishop and attendees will have an opportunity to learn about the work of the commission, join in prayer and exchange well wishes. All are invited to join us at 6:30 p.m. at the mosque in Voorhees.
These meetings would have been unheard of just 50 years ago. The Second Vatican Council’s watershed document, “Nostra Aetate” (Latin for “In Our Time”), also called the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church With Non-Christian Religions,” was promulgated in 1966. The document articulated a new protocol for how the Catholic Church should view Jews and Muslims. Nostra Aetate ignited decades of dialogue and work among Jews, Christians and Muslims to reach out to each other and overcome a history of hostility and to try to gain a new understanding and a greater respect for one another. This document reminded Catholics that Christ and his mother and apostles were all Jews and that we are intrinsically related to the Jewish faith. It denied that the Jews may be held collectively responsible for Jesus’ death and it decried all forms of hatred including anti-Semitism. Citing the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, Nostra Aetate called the Jews “most beloved” by God.
Nostra Aetate reminds us that “the church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even his inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His Virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion.”
Since Nostra Aetate, Catholics have worked with Jews and Muslims in working toward a more peaceful and just world. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI met with representatives of these religious communities often and visited synagogues and mosques in their travels. Pope Francis has already reached out to both communities in love and humility. Even washing the feet of a young Muslim on Holy Thursday.
I hope you will be able to join Bishop Sullivan at the Voorhees Mosque on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 6:30 p.m. May the God of Abraham, our God, bless our families of faith.
Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.
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