Priest Predicts Ecumenical Council Will Absolve Jews of Decide Charge

A prominent Catholic spokesman predicted to the American Jewish Congress national biennial convention here tonight that the Ecumenical Council would adopt a clear and specific condemnation of anti-Semitism at its meeting in Rome next fall.

The Rev. Robert F. Drinan, dean of the Boston College Law School, said that past delays in approving the statement would help insure the schema as adopted would provide even “greater clarity” and be “even more specific” in repudiating “any type of anti-Semitism based on the calumny that the Jewish people were responsible for the crucifixion.”

In a panel discussion on Christian-Jewish relations in the United States, Father Drinan urged that Catholic and Jewish groups “cease to be divided over the constitutionality or the wisdom of the residue of a once pan-Protestant culture in America, ” Noting that Catholics and Jews shared similar experiences in achieving religious equality in the United States, he declared: “Let Catholics and Jews seek the fullness of religious freedom for all persons- those with faith and those with no faith.”

Another speaker at the convention, the Rev. David R. Hunter, associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches, called for a common approach among the three major faiths on the question of religion in public education. He opposed school prayer and Bible reading as examples of what he termed “the corporate practice of religion. ” But, he added, learning “about religion” and its role in history was “an integral part of liberal education. ” He said it would take “some doing” by Protestants, Catholics and Jews to achieve agreement on religion in the schools and added: The doing will depend chiefly on the will-to-do.”

Howard M. Squadron, American Jewish Congress vice-president, and panel moderator, said that cooperation on civil rights among Catholics, Protestants and Jews had served to strengthen relationships and increase understanding among the three faiths. He emphasized, however, that “we must be on guard that, in the interests of religious harmony, we do not sacrifice social justice for all the constitutional principles to which we are dedicated.”