Catholicism should not dispute with the Jews about the holy places in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Elchinger, Bishop of Strasbourg, declared here today. The Vatican, he said, will have to extend the declaration adopted at its last Ecumenical Council regarding Christian-Jewish relations, “and recognize the value of post-Biblical Judaism.”
Bishop Elchinger spoke at an interfaith conference here of Catholics, Protestants and Jews. He stressed the significance of Israel to Jews in other countries, declaring “we must understand what Israel means for the Jewish people.”
Referring to the Ecumenical Council’s declaration which, among other things, deplored anti-Semitism, Bishop Elchinger warned: “We must exterminate all remaining anti-Semitism, because anti-Semitism is still not dead within the Church. Together, we shall study what is God’s plan for the Jewish people and its mission in the modern world because, I think, Judaism has a very important ecumenical mission to accomplish.”
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