Pope on Jewish-christian Relations

Following is the text of the Pope’s address:

You have gathered here in Rome from different parts of the world to explore the important matter of relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism. The importance of this problem is also emphasized by the presence among you of representatives of the Orthodox churches, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches. I am glad to be able to greet all these especially and to thank them for their collaboration.

I likewise express all my gratitude to you who are bishops, priests, religious and Christian laymen. Like your commitments in pastoral activities or in the field of biblical and theological research, your presence here shows the degree to which relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism touch on various aspects of the church and her activities.

This is easily understood. The Second Vatican Council said in its declaration on the church’s relations with non-Christian religions, “Nostra Aetate” (no. 4): “As this sacred synod searches into the mystery of the church, it recalls the spiritual bond linking the people of the new covenant with Abraham’s stock.”

I myself have had occasion to say more than once: Our two religious communities “are linked at the very level of their identities” (of. Discourse of March 12, 1979, to representatives of Jewish organizations and communities.) Indeed, and I again quote the text of the declaration “Nostra Aetate” (n.4):

“The church of Christ acknowledges that according to the mystery of God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are already found among the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. The church therefore cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through this people… She ever keeps in mind the words of the apostle Paul about his kinsmen, ‘who have the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenant and the legislation and the worship and the promises; who have the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh’ (Rom. 9:4-5), the son of the Virgin Mary.”

This is as much as to say that the links between the church and the Jewish people are grounded in the design of the God of the covenant and that as such they have necessarily left traces in certain aspects of the church’s institutions, especially in the liturgy.

Certainly since a new bough appeared from the common root 2,000 years ago, we know that relations between our two communities have been marked by resentments and a lack of understanding. If there have been misunderstandings, errors and even insults since the day of separation, it is now a question of overcoming them with understanding, peace and mutual esteem.

The terrible persecutions suffered by the Jews in various periods of history have finally opened many eyes and disturbed many hearts. Thus Christians are on the right path, that of justice and brotherhood, when they seek, with repect and perseverance, to gather with their Semitic brethren around the common heritage which is a wealth to us all.

Is there any need to point out, above all to those who remain skeptical or even hostile, that such rapprochement should not be confused with a certain religious relativism, still less with a loss of identity? For their part. Christians profess their faith without equivocation in the universal salvific character of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Yes, clarity and awareness of our Christian identity are an essential basis for achieving authentic, fruitful and lasting relationships with the Jewish people. I am happy to know that in this regard you are making many efforts, by studying and praying together, to grasp better and formulate more clearly the often difficult biblical and theological problems raised by the progress of the Judeo-Christion dialogue.

Imprecision and mediocrity in this field do enormous harm to such a dialogue. May God grant that Christians and Jews may hold more in-depth exchanges based on their own identities, without ever allowing either one or the other side to be obscured, but always seeking truly for the will of the God who revealed himself.

ASPECTS OF COMMON SPIRITUAL HERITAGE

Such relationships can and ought to help enrich the knowledge of our own roots and to bring more to light certain aspects of this identity which we have. Our common spiritual heritage is considerable. Help in better understanding certain aspects of the church’s life can be gained by taking an inventory of that heritage, but also by taking account of the faith and religious life of the Jewish people, as professed and lived now as well.

This is the case with the liturgy. Its roots have still to be more deeply traced, and above all need to be better known and appreciated by the faithful. This is true at the level of our institutions, for they have been inspired ever since the beginning of the church by certain aspects of the synagogue’s community organization.

Finally, our common spiritual patrimony is above all important at the level of our faith in one sole and unique God, who is good and merciful, who loves men and makes himself loved by them (cf. Song. 11:24-26), who is master of history and of men’s destinies, who is our Father, and who chose Israel, “that good olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the gentiles” (“Nostra Aetate,” 4; cf. also Rom. 11:17-24).

This is why you have been concerned during your session with Catholic teaching and catechesis in regard to the Jews and Judaism. You have been guided on this point, as on others, and have been encouraged by the “Guidelines and Suggestions for implementing the Council Declaration ‘Nostra Aetate’ (n.4),” published by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews (cf. Chapter III).

It is necessary to get to the point where such leaching at the various levels of religious instruction and in catechesis with children and adolescents will not only present the Jews and Judaism in an honest and objective manner, but will also do so without any prejudice or offense to anyone and even more, with a lively awareness of that heritage that we have broadly outlined….