A leading Jesuit theologian and authority on the history and organization of the Roman Catholic Church was on record today as stating that the Ecumenical Council had not adopted a declaration condemning anti-Semitism out of fear that this statement of moral principle would be interpreted by the Arab states as a pro-Israel statement of political intentions.
Father Gustav Weigel, Professor of Ecclesiology at Woodstock College, Md., and a corresponding editor of the Jesuit weekly “America,” expressed his personal doubt that a statement condemning anti-Semitism would be introduced when the sessions of the Ecumenical Council will be resumed on September 29.
Father Weigel’s disclosures were made late Saturday night in a give-and-take session with delegates to the National Community Relations Advisory Council following his formal address on patterns and currents within the American Catholic community. He stressed that Augustin Cardinal Bea, head of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, was interested in Jewish relations as well as Christian. He quoted the Cardinal, however, as stating that there were “obstacles” in the path of the Council declaration on anti-Semitism.
Father Weigel disclosed that a declaration had been drafted by two Vatican authorities on Jewish matters. He identified them as Father Rudloff, the Bene dictine Abbot of two monasteries in the Israeli sector of Jerusalem and in Weston, and Msgr. John M. Oesterreicher, of Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J. But this declaration was never submitted to the Ecumenical Council, Father Weigel said, because, although it was a statement of moral principle, the Arab states would understand it as backing up Israel, and therefore chiding and rebuffing the Arab states.
Explaining why he doubts that the situation would be changed when the Ecumenical Council resumed its session. Father Weigel said that a majority of the bishops would be in favor of such a declaration, but the presence of Catholic minorities in Arab lands must be taken into consideration. He also noted that there were Arab bishops in the Council whom he described as “very sensitive indeed” to the problems of the Arab states.
He said the statement might be introduced before the Council ends its labors, but his own feeling, based on personal observation, was that the bishops would rather avoid the issue than face it.
REMOVAL FROM LITURGY OF REMARKS OFFENSIVE TO JEWS PREDICTED
Earlier, Father Weigel had predicted that the process of removing phrases from the Catholic liturgy derogatory to the Jews would be continued. He said American Catholics were showing a greater readiness to enter into discussion with members of other faiths and a greater readiness to consider the feelings and sentiments of non-Catholics. He urged on the Jewish community relations officials a policy of “patient progressivism” in their discussions with American Catholics.
Lewis H. Weinstein, chairman of the NCRAC, said in a personal statement today that it was “disquieting to hear from Father Weigel that although the majority of Catholic bishops would undoubtedly favor a statement by the Ecumenical Council against anti-Semitism, political considerations might prevent such a declaration.” He said that Father Weigel’s statement that concern over the attitude of the Arab states to Israel might be the deterrent to such a declaration “is entirely inconsistent with the great moral basis upon which ecumenicity is founded. “
“Even if the denial of the statement against anti-Semitism were deemed expedient, a conclusion that seems completely irrelevant and unrealistic, ” Mr. Weinstein asserted, “it is our hope that Father Weigel’s tentative prediction will be contradicted by positive action from the Ecumenical Council. Jewish groups, which have been among those in the forefront in the battle against genocide, against discrimination and segregation and against denial of equal opportunity to any person because of race, color, religion or ethnic origin, look to their brothers of all religious faiths for the thrust upward to the realization of these goals.”
( Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, in a comment in New York today on Father Weigel’s disclosures recalled the statement by Cardinal Bea that “the greatest challenge to our generation is the problem of group antagonism and it is the primordial duty of all groups of mankind to unite for the purpose of overcoming hatreds of the past.” He expressed the hope that the bishops of the Catholic church “will continue to advance the great ecumenical movement of increasing understanding. ” )
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
