Rabbi Says ‘good-will Rhetoric’ and ‘living Room Dialogue’ Between Jews and Christians is Not Suffic

A leading dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church conceded here yesterday that “it took nearly 2000 years for the Catholic church to grasp fully the truth of the words of its Founder” and open a dialogue with the Jewish faith. The speaker, Msgr. Charles Moeller, said the delay was “due in part to stupidity.”

Moeller, who is chairman of the Vatican Liaison Committee for Catholic-Jewish Relations and secretary of the Vatican’s Secretariate for Promoting Christian Unity, spoke in response to Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, president of the Synagogue Council of America. He and Rabbi Look-stein were among 150 persons, mostly Catholic clergy, who attended the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ convocation here at the Catholic University, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Catholic-Jewish relations.

Rabbi Lookstein, in an address to the convocation, asked “Why did it take 2000 years and why did it take a holocaust that took six million lives to break the centuries old silence between church and synagogue?” He asserted that “good-will rhetoric” and “living room dialogue” are not enough. “The key words from now on are action and implementation. If they fail they will only fill the pool of frustration.”

PRUDENCE, PATIENCE REQUIRED

Msgr. Moeller declared that dialogue between Christians and Jews required “much prudence and patience.” He observed that “the permanence of the church and the Jewish people” means that “God is teaching us something eternal….We need a conversion of our hearts and our minds to understand the reality that exists between us all.”

Archbishop Joseph J. Bernardin of Cincinnati, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, emphasized the Ecumenical Council’s Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Astate) and the statement on Catholic-Jewish relations which the Bishops Conference adopted here last month. That statement noted that “there still exists areas of disagreement and misunderstanding which create tensions” in the Catholic and Jewish communities and expressed “hope that the difficulties can be resolved in some degree in amicable discussion.”

Rabbi Lookstein praised the Bishops statement. He urged Christians to “strive to understand” the tie between Israel and Jewry,” declaring that “My own people, the people of Israel, are standing virtually alone, charged with fresh slanders and vicious now libel.” He was referring to the series of declarations condemning Zionism and Israel recently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. “Hostility is not a parochial matter. If the Arab hates the Jew it will not be long before it spreads to others,” Rabbi Lookstein said.