On the surface, last week’s meeting between high-ranking Catholic officials and Jewish leaders in Baltimore was harmonious.
But behind the scenes, say participants, there was widespread disappointment and dissatisfaction, which could damage future Catholic-Jewish dialogue.
The International Liaison Committee, a joint body of the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and IJCIC, the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, meets roughly every 18 months.
This time, the conference was held May 4-7 in suburban Baltimore — the first time in its quarter-century history that it’s been held in North America.
Much of the unhappiness was attributed to the conduct of the leadership of the Jewish delegation.
The group of 25 Catholic delegates was headed by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and included theologians and Vatican officials from around the world.
They discussed their concerns about the conference at a hastily-called, Catholics-only caucus on the final morning.
“There was dissatisfaction with the (Jewish delegation’s) lack of commitment to the process. Many of the Jewish delegates arrived late and left early,” said one Catholic scholar who participated.
NO PAPERS OF SUBSTANCE
“There were virtually no papers of real substance or discussion, due in part to the fact that speakers were not given adequate preparation time,” said the scholar.
The Jewish delegation, which also numbered about 25 people, was led by IJCIC’s chairman, Edgar Bronfman, who is also president of the World Jewish Congress. Bronfman was absent from the meeting’s closing banquet, noted participants.
“When the principals don’t even attend the closing dinner, it says there’s a collapse of understanding the importance of the dialogue. You don’t build relationships on that basis,” said one veteran Jewish member.
Other criticism included the fact that Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel was initially scheduled to give a keynote address that was instead given by former Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs Dr. Joseph Burg.
Wiesel told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “I told them (the Jewish organizers) almost from the beginning that I couldn’t come. I don’t understand why they put it on the schedule.”
And one of the ground rules — that the Liaison Committee meetings are closed to the press, except for public sessions — was broken by the head of the Jewish delegation, whose staff invited a reporter and said that they cleared it with both Catholic and Jewish participants.
In fact, they had not, according to both Catholic and Jewish delegates. “They breached an explicit rule,” said Dr. Eugene Fisher, director of Catholic-Jewish relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“There were many positive aspects to the meeting, but there are also a number of things that need to be quietly talked about at the level of the steering committee, seriously looked at, and improved organizationally,” said Fisher.
When asked for comment, Bronfman spokesman Elan Steinberg said: “I’ve never been to a meeting that didn’t have organizational problems, and the bottom line is that the organization was not in the hands of the World Jewish Congress.”
The Baltimore conference’s problems go deeper than this one meeting, and are related to the nature and leadership of IJCIC, the Jewish group, said some participants.
“On the Catholic side we’re dealing with one organizing group, and IJCIC is a very loose association of myriad members who have all sorts of different agendas for the dialogue,” said Rev. John Pawlikowski, a professor of Social Ethics at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union.
“There are internal problems within IJCIC that have to be ironed out, and fast,” said Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, director of interreligious affairs for the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, an IJCIC member.
“IJCIC hasn’t been running by its bylaws, and very little effort has been made to promote the consultative process. There has been very poor planning of late,” he said.
The experience at this gathering of the Liaison Committee may have an impact on future dialogue efforts, participants said.
“The Vatican may find it difficult to attract people of sufficiently high quality to such an event if they feel it won’t be substantive,” said the Catholic delegation’s Pawlikowski.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the Vatican leadership has second thoughts about a meeting of this kind in the future. And I cannot blame them,” said Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of interreligious affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, an IJCIC member.
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.
