Catholic Theologian Asserts: No Theological Grounds for Christians to Oppose Israeli Sovereignty Ove

A German scholar described as the world’s leading Catholic theologian has expressed the opinion that there are no theological grounds for Christians to oppose either Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem or the State of Israel itself. The views of Father Karl Rahner, now Professor Emeritus in the theological school of Munich University, are contained in a statement to be published next week in Sh’ma, an independent Jewish publication edited by Rabbi Eugene B. Borowitz, a leading Reform scholar. Father Rahner’s leading status as a theologian was cited by an official of Herder and Herder, the leading Catholic publishing house, which publishes his writings.

Father Rahner expressed his views in response to an inquiry from Rabbi Borowitz, who is a member of the faculty of the Jewish Institute of Religion, the New York branch of the American Reform Seminary. In a statement explaining the source of the Catholic theologian’s comment, Rabbi Borowitz noted that there was a possibility that the status of Jerusalem might come up for debate again at the United Nations General Assembly which opens its fall session on Sept. 21.

Asserting that the Papacy had “intensified” renewed debate, Rabbi Borowitz noted that last May, the official Vatican publication, Osservatore Romano, referred to the “Judaization of Jerusalem at the expense of the non-Jewish population,” and that last June, Pope Paul VI spoke to the College of Cardinals about Jerusalem’s “mysterious destiny” and called for internationalization of the city. Rabbi Borowitz reported he wrote to Father Rahner in an effort to “clear up” the issue of whether control of Old Jerusalem was “a theological problem for contemporary Roman Catholics.” specifically whether “the old notions about Jerusalem were to be found in modern Catholic literature and, more important, what his teaching on this topic was.”

CHRISTIANS ACCEPTED MOHAMMADEN RULE

In his reply, the Catholic scholar wrote that “I cannot see that the return of Jerusalem to Israel constitutes a real theological problem for a Christian, such that matters of faith would compel him to oppose the return.” He noted that after the Crusades, “Christians accepted the domination by Mohammedan peoples and states as a fact, without being prompted by their faith to undo that fact.” He said “I therefore do not accept the notion that Christians ought to oppose on grounds of faith, the Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, especially since Christians are well aware of the ties by which the people of the New Covenant are spiritually connected to the Tribe of Abraham.”

Father Rahner added that Christian “dogmatic reasons would be grounds for opposing this sovereignty only if there were a decisive objection on theological grounds to the very existence of a Jewish state.” He said “I am not aware of such objections or of such a theological problem that Christians have intensively considered in theological terms.

The theologian wrote that he did not know what had prompted the Pontiff to support the internationalization of Jerusalem but suggested that one possible reason was “the desire for a peaceful compromise between Israel and the Arab states and the opinion that the ‘holy places’ of Christianity would best be safeguarded in this manner.” He suggested that there might be differences “about the weightiness of these reasons” but that in any case, they do not in my opinion comprise a real theological problem.”