Twenty-six leading rabbis and priests concluded here today a four-day colloquy in the spirit of ecumenicism, based on the liberal Catholic precept that holds that spiritually “we are all Semites.”
Sponsored by the American Benedictine Academy and the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the sessions were devoted toward an effort to develop a “religiously-oriented theory of religious liberty.” The chief purpose was stated by the Most Rev. William G. Connare, Roman Catholic Bishop of the diocese of Greensburg as an effort to probe “our common roots that literally jump from every page of the Old Testament.”
Seeking to identify the similarities, rather than the differences, between Jews and Christians, the discussions included such topics as “Evaluating the Past in Jewish-Catholic Relations,” “The Meaning of Israel as Idea and Reality,” “Freedom of Conscience in a Pluralistic Society” and “The Role of Church and Synagogue in Shaping Public Order.” The conference was held at the St. Vincent Archabbey here, and was declared highly beneficial by the priests and scholars.
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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.