A Counter-Revolution in Jewish-Catholic Ties

[Mosby]

Forty-four years of Catholic-Jewish reconciliation, set in motion by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 and nudged forward by thousands of hours of dialogue and theological review, appear to be in jeopardy right now, threatened by an ideological battle inside the Catholic Church.

The crisis was sparked by a church statement on Catholic-Jewish relations, issued June 18 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that purports to clarify “ambiguities” in a 2002 statement on interfaith understanding. Most of the new clarifications, seen through Jewish eyes, look more like retractions of reforms we’d thought were long-settled church doctrine.

Among the earlier statement’s “ambiguities” are declarations that “both the Church and the Jewish people abide in covenant with God,” that both religions “have missions before God to undertake in the world” and that the Jewish mission “must not be curtailed by seeking the conversion of the Jewish people.” In fact, as the new statement helpfully clarifies, the “fulfillment” of the Jewish covenant “is found only in Jesus Christ.” Jews have a “right to hear this Good News” in “every generation.” And it’s the job of Christians to fill them in.

Even interreligious dialogue, the very forum that produced the 2002 document, should not be mistaken for what the old statement called “sharing of gifts, devoid of any intention whatsoever to invite the dialogue partner into baptism.” Actually, we now learn, “the Christian dialogue partner is always giving witness to the following of Christ, to which all are implicitly invited.”

http://forward.com/articles/112908/