As I shared with you in a previous column, the U.S. bishops had approved two recent documents affecting Catholic-Jewish relations that sparked great consternation among Jewish leaders. The first was a June 18, 2009 document titled, “A Note on Ambiguities Contained in ‘Reflections on Covenant and Mission.’” The Note addressed issues related to evangelization and the Jewish covenant that were discussed in an article written in 2002 by a group of Catholic scholars who were consultants to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the National Council of Synagogues. One sentence in particular in the Note alarmed Jewish organizations and individuals involved in interfaith dialogue. The sentence reads: “Though Christian participation in interreligious dialogue would not normally include an explicit invitation to baptism and entrance into the Church, the Christian dialogue partner is always giving witness to the following of Christ to which all are implicitly invited.”
The second change was to the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults. This had to do with the clarification about God’s covenant with the Jewish people that I explained in my last column on this subject. As I shared with you, the Catholic bishops announced that they had received the “recognitio” from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy to the one sentence revision of the catechism that reads: “To the Jewish people, whom God first chose to hear his word, ‘belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ,’” from the original sentence that used to read: “Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them.”
These two revisions to Catholic-Jewish understanding in previous statements of the bishops caused a group of leading American Jewish organizations involved in interreligious dialogue to write a formal letter of complaint to the USCCB. The Jewish signatories included the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the National Council of Synagogues, which represents the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructive movements, the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America.
In response, Cardinal Francis George, USCCB president, Cardinal William Keeler, USCCB Liaison to the Jewish Community, Archbishop Wilton Gregory, USCCB Chairman Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Bishop William Lori, USCCB Chairman Committee on Doctrine and Bishop William Murphy, USCCB Co-chair OU/RCA Consultation wrote to Rabbi David Berger, Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Eric Greenberg, Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, American Jewish Committee, Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, National Council of Synagogues and Professor Lawrence Schiffman, Orthodox Union.
Two important points in the letter are: “We are grateful for your letter… To that end, we have composed a Statement of six points that explain briefly the teaching of the Catholic Church on our relationship to the Jewish people and what we as Catholics intend by interreligious dialogue,” and “After further discussion, our Committee has also decided to amend the Note by excising the last two sentences of paragraph seven in order to address the concerns you and others have raised about the relationship between dialogue and witness…. We hope that the attached Six Points and the revision of the Note make clear our intentions and hopes for future dialogue between committed Catholics and committed Jews.”
One of the sentences excised is the one I quoted in the first paragraph of this column.
I would like to share with you the Statement of Six Points that the cardinals and bishops included in their letter to the rabbis; I will do so in a future column. For some 44 years, since the promulgation of the watershed Vatican II document “Nostra Aetate,” Jews and Catholics have been heavily involved in an intense conversation with one another, producing numerous statements, theological reviews and countless hours of dialogue. Our divergent understandings of biblical, theological and spiritual themes that are partially shared by our traditions sometimes produce anxiety and hurt. This is one of those incidents, but it remains an opportunity for greater interfaith insight and sensitivity.
Thankfully the conversation and rapprochement continue. Stay tuned, more to come.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”