Special to the JTA Brazilian Catholic Leader is on Ecumenical Pilgrimage in Israel

Bishop Dom Ivo Lorscheiter, president of the National Bishops Conference of Brazil, is this week spending three days in Israel on an ecumenical pilgrimage, accompanied by Rabbi Henry Sobel of Congregacao Israelita Paulista in Sao Paulo, the largest synagogue in Latin America.

The highest Brazilian Catholic Church official to visit Israel’s holy places on an ecumenical trip, Lorscheiter is the guest of the Jewish community of Brazil. The trip is a token of gratitude for the bishop’s extraordinary personal support for Catholic-Jewish relations in Brazil, Sobel told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Lorscheiter will visit the holy places of Christianity and Judaism, but will not be meeting with official representatives of the Israeli government, Sobel said. “With regard to international policy, the National Bishops’ Conference of Brazil is subject to the authority of the Holy See, and the Vatican does not recognize the State of Israel,” Sobel explained.

‘TREMENDOUS SENSITIVITY’ BY BRAZILIAN BISHOPS

“The Brazilian bishops have already acknowledged the reality of the State of Israel, which is the most they can do,” Sobel said. “The Bishops’ Conference does not have the power to recognize or not recognize a nation. Such recognition can only come from the Vatican,”

But, Sobel added, “The Brazilian bishops showed tremendous sensitivity by including in their guidelines ‘the right of Jews to a peaceful political existence in their land or origin, a right that becomes real in the State of Israel.’ And the mere fact that the president of the Bishops’ Conference wants to go to Israel speaks for itself.”

The “guidelines” to which Sobel referred is a 187-page “Guide for Catholic-Jewish Dialogue in Brazil,” distributed in the fall of 1986 to Brazil’s 229 Catholic archdioceses and dioceses. The guide covers such subjects as Israel, Jewish history, the Holocaust, roots of anti-Semitism, Judaism in Brazil, and interfaith cooperation.

“I personally feel that the ecumenical cause is valid independent of the recognition of the State of Israel by the Vatican, important as that may be,” Sobel told the JTA. “Recognition of the State of Israel by the Vatican is a top priority for Jews all over the world, and we will strive relentlessly toward this goal. The issue of Israel is at the very center of Catholic-Jewish understanding.

“However, even if the Vatican does not recognize Israel in the immediate future, Catholic-Jewish dialogue must continue. Recognition will be a consequence of dialogue; it cannot be a prerequisite. If we make it a sine qua non condition, we will be creating an impasse to further progress in Catholic-Jewish relations. Our impatience with the Vatican’s position on Israel cannot lead us to intransigence with regard to interfaith dialogue and action.”

A MORE IMPORTANT STEP

For the Jews living in Brazil, “the support given by the Brazilian Catholic leadership to our community and to Israel is even more important than is recognition of Israel by the Vatican,” Sobel continued. “In Brazil, where Jews are such a small minority, the National Bishops’ Conference is reaching out to us with open arms and hearts. We cannot belittle their concrete manifestation of solidarity.”

There are only about 150,000 Jews in Brazil, with the largest community of some 70,000 in Sao Paulo. Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world, with Catholics comprising 90 percent of its population of 140 million.

“Under such circumstances, the good will of the Brazilian bishops toward the Jewish community takes on an even greater meaning,” Sobel said. “They certainly don’t need us. We need them. Israel does not depend on relations with the Vatican, in order to exist. But the way in which hundreds of millions of Brazilian Catholics are taught to think about Jews now and in the future will be critical to the future of our Jewish children.”