The Commonweal, liberal Catholic lay-edited weekly, asserted today that, if Roman Catholicism was “serious about erasing Christian anti-Semitism,” the Ecumenical Council would have to take a stronger stand on relations with the Jewish people than the revised version of the draft declaration on which debate was concluded at the Vatican this week.
The weekly, in its current issue, criticized “the needless skirting of the deicide issue” in the revised draft and the emphasis on “reunion” of Jews with Christianity. The Commonweal declared that such elements were “as offensive to Jews as they should be to understanding Catholics.”
Asserting that the Church could not “settle for the mild form of lip service now before the Council,” the weekly said that “the needs of diplomacy and of the political sensitivities of the Arab governments must not be granted the sort of weight that brings a parliamentary compromise.”
Other criticisms of the debated Vatican document were voiced by the Catholic Reporter organ of the Kansas City St. Joseph Diocese; and the Catholic Universe Bulletin of Cleveland, the central Diocesan newspaper in that city. Both criticized the new version, which has been strongly opposed by Jewish leaders, as well as by most American cardinals and archbishops in the Council debate in Rome.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
