Jews and Catholics Mark Start of a Year-long Dialogue

At a unique convocation yesterday, a rabbi spoke for the first time from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral while a Catholic priest spoke at Temple Emanu-El. The addresses by Rabbi Ronald B. Sobel, spiritual leader of the Reform temple, and Msgr. James F. Rigney, rector of St. Patrick’s, marked the beginning of what they termed a year-long “honest dialogue” between the two houses of worship. The convocation was also the scene for making public guidelines for Catholic-Jewish relations in New York City sponsored by the temple, the cathedral, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the Archdiocese of New York.

Both Rabbi Sobel and Msgr. Rigney stressed at a press conference prior to their sermons that Temple Emanu-El and St. Patrick’s were not trying to impose their will on other houses of worship in New York City but hoped that their example would lead other synagogues and churches to adopt similar programs. They stressed they would not be conducting common services nor shedding their independence but would work together to solve problems faced by Jews and Catholics and to achieve a better understanding between the two groups.

The convocation marked the tenth anniversary of the Statement on Jews issued at Vatican Council II. But Msgr. Rigney said work on the guidelines had started before the recent announcement of the Vatican guidelines on the Jews.

URGES CHRISTIAN-JEWISH COOPERATION

In his address given at the cathedral in the afternoon, Rabbi Sobel stressed that “The past can never be forgotten but at some point it must be forgiven if we are ever to build a world of peace upon a planet of love.” He said both Jews and Christians must work together to solve problems in New York City and the world. He urged Jews to support religious freedom for the Catholic church where it is denied, such as in Czechoslovakia, and for Christians to speak up on the plight of Soviet Jewry.

He added: “To truly understand us, you will have to understand the relationship between the Jewish people and the State of Israel….That land is part of our soul and we call upon you, Christian brothers, to lend us your voice as we proclaim the right of the State of Israel to exist with freedom and peace alongside of her Arab neighbors. Justice and equality for Israeli and Arab; no more and no less–that is what we seek.”

NEED FOR ON-GOING DIALOGUE

Msgr. Rigney in his address given in the evening, stressed that “today’s happenings really form a prologue, a statement of intent. The validity of the prologue depends on what follows.” He said that Jews and Catholics “need to spend time together….Meeting in spasms, always on the occasion of a particular crisis, has been too much the situation up to now. With regular conversation and inevitable growth in candor we will come to a fuller and more realistic view of our goals.”

Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York, said that establishing “a real dialogue” everywhere, where Jews and Catholics live side by side will result in the betterment of the community. “It will strengthen religious and moral values in our society so that people may live together with respect for one another in freedom and peace,” he said.

Benjamin Epstein, national director of the ADL, noting that “centuries of distrust and antagonism still weigh upon us,” declared: “This intermingling of congregations testifies eloquently that synagogue and church can come together and work in tandem on the problems we share jointly as Americans and citizens of this city.”

“COMMON ASPIRATIONS’ CITED

The guidelines, entitled “How Jews and Roman Catholics Would Like to Live in New York,” included the following as “common aspirations”: healing the wounds of misunderstanding by working together on issues affecting both groups; promoting greater cooperation through shared study and sensitivity to individual feelings and spirituality; instituting productive dialogue and closer association in Catholic and Jewish houses of worship; and facing controversial subjects candidly and with respect for each other’s views, even when a consensus cannot be achieved.

A committee of Catholics and Jews from the St. Patrick’s and Temple Emanu-El congregations will be appointed to meet once each month to implement the guidelines. A similar Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee for Brooklyn and Queens was established eight years ago under the co-sponsorship of the Brooklyn Diocese and the ADL.

The New York Federation of Reform Synagogues plans to utilize the new interreligious program as a pilot effort encouraging the area’s 105 Reform synagogues to engage in similar projects. Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of the New York Federation, called the proposed Emanu-El-St. Patrick’s cooperation “a desperately needed example for this city of positive interreligious relations.”