Ecumenical Council Declaration on Jews Undergoing Drastic Revisions

Leaders of American Jewry were shocked and highly disappointed today to learn that the draft declaration approved at the Ecumenical Council last November, exonerating the Jews of any collective responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus, had been drastically revised by an ad hoc commission of four at the Vatican, despite the fact that it was adopted at the Council by a vote of 1,992 to 99.

The declaration, as adopted last November against the opposition of ultra-conservative prelates and Bishops from the Arab states, had stated clearly that no blame for the death of Jesus could be attributed to the Jewish people alive in the days of Jesus and “much less” to the Jews of today. However, that draft must be considered for final adoption at the next session of the Ecumenical Council, scheduled to convene September 17, before it is promulgated as official Catholic Church doctrine.

The New York Times, in a cable from its correspondent in Rome today, said that the draft declaration is now being fought at top levels in the Vatican, and is in danger of being so diluted as to make its message meaningless. The correspondent cited the following facts as indications that the declaration faces new challenges, and that changes in its text may be made next month, during a plenary meeting of the Council Secretarial for Christian Unity:

1. The document had been passed on to an ad hoc extra-councilor commission of four prelates, acting as a separate group instead of being part of the Council, for review of the declaration and for recommending revisions. That body is composed of four prelates, headed by the Rev. Luigi Carli, of Segni, Italy, identified as “one of the most ultra-conservative voices in the church.”

This group has reportedly proposed a completely new and shorter text of a declaration which would speak merely of “forgiveness” to the Jews rather than of exonerating them of the deicide charge. Only one member of the ad hoc group, Giovanni Cardinal Colombo, Archbishop of Milan, was reported to have opposed the changes advocated by Bishop Carli.

‘HIGHEST VATICAN AUTHORITIES’ REPORTED FAVORING REVISION

2. “Highest Vatican authorities” were reportedly in favor of revising the preliminary declaration “to insure its orthodoxy and purity of doctrine” and to safeguard the interests of Roman Catholics in Arab lands who fear their governments would discriminate against them if the declaration is adopted as approved last November.

3. A magazine article by Bishop Carli last month, bluntly asserting that the Jews of Jesus’s day did, indeed, bear collective responsibility for His crucifixion. Further, the Bishop wrote that, to the extent that Judaism today constitutes the “free and voluntary continuation” of that of Jesus’s time, today’s Jews continue to “participate objectively in the responsibility for deicide.”

4. A sermon on April 4 by Pope Paul VI illustrating the continued rejection of Jesus by many men by reference to the Jews who “in the end, killed him.” Assurances by Vatican spokesmen that this was merely a pastoral reference to scriptural texts without any significance for the declaration have failed to still speculation that it indicated papal adoption of the conservative thesis.

5. Intense diplomatic activity between Arab representatives and the Vatican, the Arabs insisting that the preliminary declaration as it stands would be interpreted as Vatican support of Israel.

The four-man commission had been requested by Pope Paul to submit a unanimously agreed-upon document to the next session of the Ecumenical Council. Since no unanimity was achieved, the commission has reportedly passed on its report to the Secretariat for Christian Unity, headed by Augustin Cardinal Bea. The latter has been the chief proponent of a strong declaration, clearly exonerating the Jews of the deicide charge.

The Times reported that high-ranking churchmen, including Americans, who have asked the Vatican to reassure them that the November draft would not be altered substantively, have received “equivocal answers from the highest Vatican sources.”