To mark the 50 years of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue started at Second Vatican Council, which gained significant momentum by the promulgation of the Declaration regarding the relationship of the Church with non-Christian religions, ‘Nostra Aetate’, by Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965, the Pontifical Angelicum University held a conference entitled “Building on Nostra aetate: 50 Years of Christian-Jewish Dialogue” on 16 May. It was organised in collaboration with the John Paul II Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, which is directed by Rabbi Jack Bemporad. The Catholic Church will never forget the Shoah nor will it ignore the immense pain unjustly inflicted on Jewish people throughout the centuries, especially by those who claimed to be Christians. The Church will never encourage any sort of anti-Semitism. Hence, the famous words endorsed by the Conciliar Declaration ‘Nostra Aetate’ are to be repeated with much vigour and conviction. As it stands, it also the way on which the Jewish-Christian dialogue can be founded to sail on the open seas of discussion, reconciliation and joint ventures aimed at consolidating the common good of humanity.
“The Church reproves every form of persecution against whomsoever it may be directed. Remembering, then, her common heritage with the Jews and moved not by any political consideration, but solely by the religious motivation of Christian charity, she deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism levelled at any time or from any source against the Jews.”
This declaration is a historical breakthrough in the understanding of both Jews and Christians alike after centuries of apathy, confusion, discrimination, condemnation, oppression and persecution.
It was not drafted due to political consideration but for theological and ethical motives. Reasons of justice and revealed truth are its foundation blocks. By justice, since all kinds of discrimination and defamation do not respect human dignity. Thus, in his message on the World Day of Peace 1999, Blessed John Paul II said that respect for human dignity and human rights are the secret for true peace.
“When the promotion of the dignity of the person is the guiding principle, and when search for the common good is the overriding commitment, then solid and lasting foundations for building peace are laid” (§ 1). In the next paragraph he added: “The history of our time has shown in a tragic way the danger which results from forgetting the truth about the human person. Before our eyes we have the results of ideologies such as Marxism, Nazism and Fascism, and also of myths like racial superiority, nationalism and ethnic exclusivism ... it must be said again that no affront to human dignity can be ignored, whatever its source, whatever actual form it takes and wherever it occurs” (§ 2).
Sound and objective instruction on Jews and Judaism is much needed for the consolidation and promising future of the relations between the Catholic and Judaism. On 6 March 1982, Blessed John Paul II told delegates of episcopal conferences and other experts who were meeting in Rome to study relations between the Church and Judaism:
“You yourselves were concerned, during your sessions, with Catholic teaching and catechesis regarding Jews and Judaism. We should aim, in this field, that Catholic teaching at its different levels, in catechesis to children and young people, presents Jews and Judaism, not only in an honest and objective manner, free from prejudices and without any offences, but also with full awareness of the heritage common to Jews and Christians.”
Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of the Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, and keynote speaker at the conference, concluded his speech saying that the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people will “arrive at a better understanding between Jews and Christians so that Jews and Christians as the one people of God bear witness to peace and reconciliation in the unreconciled world of today and can thus be a blessing not only for one another but also jointly for humanity”.
Mario Attard OFM Cap
SAN GWANN