The recent Ecumenical Council’s schema on relations with the Jewish people, later promulgated as a Catholic Church decree by Pope Paul VI, was “indeed an improvement” over previous drafts of that document, and showed clearly that the Catholic Church shares “a common patrimony with the Jews,” the Most Rev. John A. Krol, Archbishop of Philadelphia, declared here.
At a news conference discussing the results of the Ecumenical Council’s actions, the Archbishop supported the document relating to the Jews, and stated that certain changes from earlier drafts were fully Justified. On the deletion of the word “deicide” from the schema, he stated: “One must not get lost in words. The impact of the document is clear. It would have been ridiculous to use that word “deicide” in the declaration. We cannot condemn the Jews of today for the acts performed 2,000 years ago. The word “deicide” implies the knowing that a god was being killed.”
Archbishop Krol also upheld the change in the document, dropping the word “condemn” in regard to anti-Semitism and substituting the word “deplore.” The use of “condemn.” he said, “would have been alien to the mind of Pope John and to the total tendency of the Council. The word has always been deleted when it arises at the Council. As a pastoral Council, we do not condemn.”
Archbishop Krol was the only American on the preparatory commission formed after the late Pope John XXIII first announced his intention in 1959, to convene an Ecumenical Council, Later, he was the only American bishop among five Council secretaries, In general, he said, the Council “far surpassed the expectations” of the late Pope John.
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