wfn.org | Vatican Official Reflects on Future of Relations with Jews

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Contact: Sarah Bernstein
Programs Director
Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel
972-2-672-6430
programs@icci.co.il
www.icci.co.il

or 
Ricki Lieberman, ICCI U.S. representative
212.580.5516
RickiLieberman@aol.com

By Rabbi Ron Kronish

JERUSALEM, March 28--His Eminence  Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, retiring 
President of the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with 
the Jews, delivered the keynote lecture in Jerusalem on "The Future of 
Jewish-Christian Relations in the light of the visit of the Pope to the Holy 
Land."   

This public lecture on March 13 took place as part of the celebrations of the 
10th anniversary of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI), 
Israel's national umbrella organization for interreligious and intercultural 
relations.  

The lecture, at ICCI's 10th Annual General Meeting, was just one year after 
the visit of the Pope to the Holy Land.  During that visit,  the ICCI played 
a significant educational role.
 
ICCI works in the areas of Jewish-Christian Dialogue, Jewish-Muslim Dialogue, 
Education for Arab-Jewish Coexistence, Peace Education, and Interreligious 
Cooperation for the Environment in Israel.

Cardinal Cassidy, who has been the point person in the Vatican for religious 
relations with the Jewish People for many years, was responsible for issuing 
the Vatican's document on the Holocaust in March 1998 entitled "We Remember: 
A Reflection on the Shoah." 

In his introduction to that document, Pope John Paul II expressed the hope 
that the document "will indeed help to heal the wounds of past 
misunderstandings and injustices."

In his carefully worded speech, Cardinal Cassidy began by reflecting on the 
visit of Pope John Paul II to the Holy Land a year ago.  Referring back to 
the remarkable images of the Pope at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, 
and at the Western Wall, Cardinal Cassidy quoted Rev. Father Jerome Murphy 
O'Connor of Jerusalem who pointed out,

"By standing there (at the Western  Wall) this symbolized the humility of the 
Church which has been viewed by Jews as arrogant.  By standing there he 
transformed the relationship of Christianity towards Judaism.  It is a 
complete reversal of history."

Cardinal Cassidy then reviewed the main achievements of the past 35 years, 
which led up to the Pope standing at the Wall, and he gave the Pope much 
credit for the major advances in Catholic-Jewish Relations of this period.  

But the main thrust of the Cardinal's speech was on the future, not the past, 
and in so doing, he assured all of us -- and by extension Jews and Catholics 
around the world -- when he said:  "I feel absolutely confident in stating 
that there will be no going back on the part of the Catholic Church."

ICCI's tenth Annual Meeting was preceded on the same day by a special seminar 
on the theme of "The Future of the Relations Between the Jewish People and 
the Catholic Church."  The seminar was co-sponsored by ICCI, the Israel 
Jewish Council for Interreligious Relations (which is the Israeli partner of 
the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations), and the 
recently established Israel Government Forum for Interreligious Relations.  
The government forum was set up last spring by Isaac Herzog, former Secretary 
to the Israel Government, in the wake of the highly successful visit of the 
Pope to the Holy Land.  

This seminar--an off-the-record, genuine, candid dialogue in the best sense 
of the word--was attended by Jewish and Christian leaders from public and 
private life in Israel who are involved in both the diplomatic/political as 
well as theological/interreligious aspects of the dialogue between the 
Catholic Church and the Jewish People.

Founded on January 16th, 1991, on the eve of the Gulf War, ICCI now includes 
representatives of 69 organizations throughout Israel which promote good 
relations between the members of the major religious and ethnic communities 
in this country--Jews, Christians and Muslims.  

Cardinal Cassidy reflected on the achievements accomplished during the past 
35 years as well as the central challenges that lie ahead, especially in the 
area of combating ignorance about each other via more serious and systematic 
education on both sides.  

A response was offered by Rabbi David Rosen, director of the Israel Office of 
the Anti-Defamation League and their liaison to the Vatican, who discussed 
some of the obstacles confronting the dialogue and the need to confront  them 
among friends genuinely and candidly.

Following this, Ambassador Shmuel Hadas, Israel's first ambassador to the 
Holy See, addressed the difficult and complex subject of "Implications of the 
Relations Between the State of Israel and the Holy See for Relations between 
the Catholic Church and the Jewish People".  

Ambassador Hadas called for the Catholic Church to work with the State of 
Israel and the Jewish People in implementing aspects of the Fundamental 
Agreement signed at the end of 1993 between the Holy See and the State of 
Israel.  In particular, there is a need to work together more to combat 
anti-Semitism and racism, as well as to engage in educational and cultural 
cooperation.  

The Papal Nuncio, Msgr. Sambi, responded by saying that that Fundamental 
Agreement had changed the nature of the relationship between Israel and the 
Holy See, and he agreed with Ambassador Hadas that much more needs to be done 
in practical ways to implement aspects of this historic agreement.

In addition, Chief Rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen of Haifa spoke about the "The 
Limitations in Jewish-Catholic Dialogue today".  He emphasized the importance 
of getting to know one another better through dialogue and education without 
sacrificing one's own particular identity.  Cardinal Cassidy agreed and said 
that in his many years of dialogue with Jews all over the world, this was 
indeed the case, i.e. genuine dialogue does not weaken particular identity 
but strengthens each person and group in their own faith.  Conversion is not 
part of this dialogue; on the contrary, one of the great benefits of Vatican 
II was to end missionizing  on the part of Catholics towards Jews.

At the conclusion of this special seminar with Cardinal Cassidy, Ambassador 
Shmuel Hadas and I were privileged to present a gift of a Jerusalem Bible as 
a token of appreciation to His Eminence Cardinal Cassidy for his many years 
of service to the Vatican in this special position as President of the 
Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews.   

Cardinal Cassidy has been a real friend to the Jewish People and the State of 
Israel.  He has developed deep and abiding relationships with Jewish people 
and institutions all over the world, and has been a leader in his Church in 
helping create revolutionary attitudes and new thinking about the Jews and 
Judaism in the post-Holocaust era.

In presenting His Eminence with a copy of the Hebrew Bible, with a State of 
Israel medallion of Jerusalem on it, I told him how much his presence with us 
in dialogue in Jerusalem meant to us and to Jews the world over. 

His visit to Israel on this occasion spoke volumes about the new attitude, 
theology and practice with regard to both Judaism and the Jewish People, as 
well as to the State of Israel.  Moreover, his coming to Israel at this time, 
as he has done a number of times during the past decade, was a reflection of 
the great changes that have taken place since the signing of the Fundamental 
Agreement between the State of Israel and the Holy See at the end of 1993.

In his speech, Cardinal Cassidy stressed that "we need to continue to build 
mutual trust between our communities" and added that "mutual trust is a basic 
element of all true dialogue." 

When I heard this, I reflected on how far we have come in the last 35 years. 
I couldn't agree more with Cardinal Cassidy's statement that "the commitment 
to achieve such understanding and mutual respect is a process that begins 
with a change in heart, in our own individual hearts, and spreads through our 
community out into the world in which we live."

....
Dr  Ron Kronish, a rabbi and educator, serves as Director of the 
Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (I.C.C.I.), based in Jerusalem, 
Israel.