Conference Explores Growth of Catholic-jewish Relations: Parochial Schools Praised

Speaking at the third annual “Bishop’s Day” of the Brooklyn-Queens Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee, the Most Reverend Francis J. Mugavero, D.D., Bishop of Brooklyn, said yesterday “that the Catholics of North America are determined, with you, to establish mutual respect between Catholics and Jews.” Stating that “many centuries ago we stopped even speaking to each other and withdrew into all-Christian and all-Jewish worlds,” Bishop Mugavero, who is Episcopal Moderator of the Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that Catholics and Jews “have discovered that we share a past. We are learning how to live together in the present.” The Bishop spoke at an observance of the fifth anniversary of the Vatican Council’s Declaration on Catholic-Jewish Relations in the Forest Hills Jewish Center. The meeting, followed by a reception for Bishop Mugavero, was jointly sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. In addition to Bishop Mugavero, the gathering of several hundred clerical and lay leaders was addressed by the Reverend John J. Keating, C.P.S., executive secretary of the Commission on Catholic-Jewish Relations of the Canadian Bishops’ Conference, and Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser of the Forest Hills Jewish Center.

Dr. Joseph L. Lichten, Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s department for intercultural affairs, whom Bishop Mugavero described as “a pioneer in the area of Catholic-Jewish relations,” told the gathering that the developing Christian-Jewish dialogue must have meaning “not only for our scholarly exchanges but also for our daily experiences.” in illustrating the ways in which the Jewish community responds to Catholic concerns, Dr. Lichten said: “We know that the Catholic community is currently intensely occupied with the future of its children’s education, This is a serious problem. Each closed school, whether public or parochial, slows the education process and necessarily brings anguish to the community affected.” Dr. Lichten, who in his address briefly reviewed the history and significance of the Vatican Council. statement, praised the Catholic parochial schools for the excellent programs of inter-religious cooperation they have developed with the Anti-Defamation League, and said “that many of my coreligionist feel deeply uneasy regarding the sword of Damocles which hangs over the Catholic school system.”