Cardinal Hanz Konig of Vienna, the Primate of Austria and an expert in the religious history of Iran, will deliver two lectures at Georgetown University. March 8-9. The first, delivered today, was titled “The End of Christian Anti-Semitism.” The Cardinal’s visit is sponsored by Georgetown University’s Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute of Ethics.
In his lecture, Konig discussed efforts to improve Christian-Jewish relations in the 14 years since the Second Vatican Council’s adoption of its “Declaration on the Jews.” He said that “in no other sphere was there so much debris to be cleared away as in the relations between Christians and Jews, not only because Christians and Jews have been spiritually embattled for 2000 years, but also because as long as the power was on their side, Christians have done harm to the Jews.”
In this “embittered struggle, however,” the Cardinal said, “there still existed a common basis, as long as faith still played a determinant role in society and intellectual life. In a Europe permeated with the smug materialism of a beginning secularization, an assortment of various motives produced that mania which led to the persecution and extinction of uncounted human beings because of their racial derivation and Jewish ancestry.”
Later in his speech the Cardinal said that for “many years now the Viennese Coordination Committee has been promoting an improved information exchange between Jews and Christians.” A similar purpose, he said, is served by the Christian-Jewish Information Center maintained by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion.
ROLE OF VIENNESE SYNOD
The efforts of the Coordination Committee to promote mutual understanding “had a marked influence on a declaration issued by the Dioces on Synod of Vienna regarding the relations of the Church to non-Catholics, Jews and non-Christians,” the Cardinal said. “The Viennese Synod was one of the few post conciliar synods in Europe undertaking to consider relations with the Jews. The principles, resolutions, recommendations, votes and appeals concerning Christian-Jewish encounter were all adopted by overwhelming majorities.”
One of the resolutions, Konig said, contained the following recommendation: “Religious instructions, textbooks and teaching aids are not only to avoid incorrect statements about the Jewish people, but also should explain the seemingly negative statements in the Scriptures in the light of Pauline theology. Equally, the religious content of the Old Testament is to be elucidated with positive demonstration of Israel’s significance as the covenanted partner of God.”
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