Every bishop expects the chapter on Jews to be further discussed and approved by the next session of the Ecumenical Council in Rome, a Catholic bishop told a Jewish audience in a Washington synagogue last night.
The Right Rev. Philip M. Hannan, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, spoke to a Jewish lay group at the Adas Israel congregation. Such interdenominational discussions were supported by the Ecumenical Council and Bishop Hannan devoted his talk to the Council discussions which related to the attitude of the Catholic Church toward the Jews. In this connection, Bishop Hannan said that he expects the next session of the Council to declare that the Catholic Church considers itself “the religious heir of the Jewish people, the chosen people of God.”
Coming out strongly in favor of a declaration by the Vatican Council on religious freedom, Bishop Hannan said such a move would be a “challenge to the whole empire of Communist enslavement,” American bishops at the Vatican Council’s last meeting firmly supported such a declaration of religious freedom.
The Bishop denied, however, that anti-Semitism, especially that of the Nazis, was inspired by Catholic teachings. Instead, what is involved is the need to root out from the minds of Catholics the prejudices which were created by the anti-Semitism, Bishop Hannan asserted.
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.
