News in Christian-Jewish Relations:  April 2001

This month:


17th Meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee to occur in New York, May 1-4, 2001. 

The gathering that has served as an official point of contact between the Vatican and the worldwide Jewish community will convene in New York City from May 1-4. For the first time in its thirty year history, the agenda of the International Catholic Jewish Liaison Committee (ILC) will feature substantive discussion on a theological topic: Repentance and Reconciliation. This topic will be considered from scriptural perspectives, from the religious traditions of both the Jewish and Catholic communities, and in the light of the Catholic-Jewish dialogue of the past three decades.

The meeting will also have sessions on the Vatican document Dominus Iesus, which caused some distress in the Jewish community upon its issuance in September 2000 because of its failure to discuss the special place of the Judaism in current Catholic thought. Time will also be spent reviewing the work of the three Catholic and three Jewish scholars who completed last spring their exploration of published Vatican archival material from the Second World War. The Committee will also finalize a document of its own concerning Religious Liberty and Religious Sites.

The Committee will take time from its work to honor Catholic and Jewish leaders in the interfaith dialogue. They include: Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, recently retired president of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews; Dr. Gerhard Riegner, honorary Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress; John J. Cardinal O'Connor (posthumously), late Cardinal Archbishop of New York; Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, Senior Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel, Great Neck, NY; Msgr. George W. Higgins, Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Catholic University of America; Rabbi Leon Klenicki, outgoing Director of Interreligious Affairs, The Anti-Defamation League; Dr. Rose Thering, O.P., Professor Emerita of Education, Seton Hall University; Rabbi A. James Rudin, Outgoing Director of Interreligious Affairs, The American Jewish Committee. 

The ILC consists of delegates from the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation. IJCIC includes representatives from the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith International, the Israel Council on Inter-religious Relations and representatives of the three major Jewish denominations.

Click here for a list of past meetings of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee.

 

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