News in Christian-Jewish Relations:  August 2002

This month:

 


ELCA Issues Eight "Talking Points" on Christian-Jewish Relations

Chicago, August 20 ? A new set of study and discussion materials entitled "Talking Points: Topics in Christian-Jewish Relations" has been posted on the internet by the Department for Ecumenical Affairs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Intended to foster re-examination of key aspects of Christian teaching in light of the Christian-Jewish dialogue, the materials include brief expositions of topics such as "Covenants Old and New," "Law and Gospel," "Promise and Fulfillment," "Difficult Texts," and "Christians and Jews in the Context of World Religions." Also included is a User's Guide, Resources for Further Study, and a Response and Evaluation Form. The materials, which are also available in a printed version, may be found HERE.

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BCEIA/NCS issues major "Reflections on Covenant and Mission"

The Consultation of the Bishops Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Council of Synagogues has just issued a very significant document entitled, "Reflections on Covenant and Mission."   The Consultation meets semi-annually and brings together leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and of the Reform and Conservative movements of the U.S. Jewish community. Similar national-level meetings have been taking place for over twenty years.

This new document consists of separate reflections on the Catholic and Jewish understandings of how their relationship with God imparts a mission in the world.

The Catholic reflections offer an important discussion of why the evangelizing mission of the Catholic Church "no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history."   Thus, campaigns that target Jews for conversion are theologically unacceptable in the Catholic Church.

The Jewish reflections describe the mission of the Jews and the perfection of the world, which is seen to have three aspects. There are obligations of Jews to God, a mission of witnessing to God's redeeming power in the world, and a mission that is addressed to all human beings. The Jewish reflections conclude by urging Jews and Christians to articulate a common agenda to heal the world. "For Jews and Christians who heard the call of God to be a blessing and a light to the world, the challenge and mission are clear."

"This joint reflection marks a significant step forward in the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community in this country," said Cardinal William Keeler, the U.S. Bishops' Moderator for Catholic-Jewish relations. "Here one can see, perhaps more clearly than ever before, an essential compatibility, along with equally significant differences, between the Christian and Jewish understandings of God's call to both our peoples to witness to the Name of the One God to the world in harmony.  This echoes the words of Pope John Paul II, praying that as Christians and Jews we may be 'a blessing to one another' so that, together, we may be 'a blessing to the world.' (Pope John Paul II, On the 50th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 6, 1993)."

Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, Executive Director of the National Council of Synagogues, said: "The joint Catholic-Jewish statement on mission is yet another step in turning a new page in the often stormy relationship between the Jewish people and the Roman Catholic Church.  Neither faith group believes that we should missionize among the other in order to save souls via conversion.  Quite the contrary: we believe both faith groups are beloved of God and assured of His grace.  The joint mission statement has articulated a new goal, namely the healing of a sick world and the imperative to repair the damage we humans have caused to God's creations.  We believe we are partners in bringing blessings to all humankind for this is God's will."

 

For the full text of the statement click here

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Rabbi Mordecai Waxman dies. He was a Jewish pioneer in interfaith dialogue.

Statement of Cardinal Keeler on death of Rabbi Waxman

I join family, friends and congregants in mourning the passing of Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, a dear friend and a major force in the improvement of relations between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church worldwide.

At international meetings Rabbi Waxman was always a committed and articulate advocate of his own faith perspective. At the same time, he saw and enthusiastically helped others to see the Catholic Church's profoundly new and positive to Judaism beginning with the Second Vatican Council. 

In 1987, he spoke in Miami for the Jewish community in the United States in welcoming Pope John Paul II to this country, and he continued as a partner and leader in dialogue as long as his health permitted.  Pope John Paul II recognized Rabbi Waxman's significant contribution to reconciliation by naming him a Knight Commander of Saint Gregory in 1998.

May Rabbi Waxman's spirit and example continue to inspire us all.

 

Statement of Dr. Eugene Fisher

Rabbi Mordecai Waxman's career, on the national and international level, has been virtually coterminous with the great developments in Catholic-Jewish relations since the Second Vatican Council.  In his passing, we mourn the loss of a  mentor, guide,  and not infrequent constructive goad to many of us in the Catholic as well as Jewish communities.  It is one of the great privileges of my life to have known Mordy and to have been able to call him a friend.

Rabbi Waxman was involved in the academic dialogues in the late 1970's between the then Synagogue Council of America and the US Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations (BCEIA) which produced two volumes of seminal papers on the religious foundations of social policy in the Catholic and Jewish communities in this country.  He headed the Jewish delegations which met with Pope John Paul II in 1987, first at Castelgandolfo in Italy, to resolve a major impediment, and then in Miami, where he spoke for some 400 Jewish representatives gathered from across the U.S. for the historic first major meeting of any pope with American Jewry on American soil. 

Also in 1987, Rabbi Waxman and Cardinal William Keeler founded and became the first co-chairs of what is now an ongoing, twice-yearly meeting between representatives of the National Council of Synagogues (NCS) and the BCEIA.  This dialogue has produced numerous statements over the years, on topics ranging from Moral Values in Public Education and Condemning Holocaust Revisionism to Reflections on the Millennium and On Children and the Environment.  It is perhaps not coincidental that as I write this on August 12, 2002, the NCS/BCEIA consultation is issuing its most significant and profound  joint reflection to date,  "On Covenant and Mission,"  which takes the current dialogue between the Church and the Jewish people into new areas of joint theological enquiry.

Rabbi Waxman, in the words of Cardinal Keeler, has been over the decades the chief religious "statesman" of the Jewish People to the Catholic Church, and to Christians in general.  In this capacity he has helped to guide us through the numerous controversies of the period, many of which involved at their heart a reconsideration by the Church of the implications of the Shoah for our teaching and self-understanding.

For example, the day in 1998 after the issuance of the Holy See's document, WE REMEMBER: A REFLECTION ON THE SHOAH, Rabbi Waxman and Cardinal Keeler were in Rome on the last leg of a joint bishop/rabbi pilgrimage to Israel.  With less than 24 hours notice, Rabbi Waxman was able to draw together for a meeting with the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, which issued the document, a constructive appreciation, analysis and critique, which anticipated all of the major points, pro and con, raised concerning the document in subsequent months.  The President of the Pontifical Commission, Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy was not only grateful, but took the criticisms to heart, clarifying the document in key aspects in his own ongoing remarks on it to several audiences.  These, in turn, formed the basis for how the U.S. Bishops, and other Episcopal Conferences, received the document and implemented in their local churches, responding to the issues raised originally by Rabbi Waxman in Rome.  Thus, the history of the reception and interpretation of the document was greatly improved and assisted by Rabbi Waxman's perceptive response.

In 1998, the Holy See showed its gratitude to Rabbi Waxman for his many years of work in the dialogue by naming him Knight Commander of St. Gregory the Great, a papal honor dating back to 1831.  Interestingly, this was a Knighthood originally awarded to those deemed "defenders of the Papal States,"  an honor which makes sense if one acknowledges that the best "defense" anyone has in life is the honest appraisal and even criticism of close friends.

As Cardinal Keeler said in presenting the honor, "Over the years, Rabbi Waxman has been a consistent peacemaker.  He has worked for reconciliation between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church.  He has been a firm but fair teacher to all of us in the dialogue."

In accepting the award, Rabbi Waxman acknowledged with characteristic humility and honesty, that it reflected the fact that in terms of the historic relationship between the Church and the Jewish People, he had had "a brush with history."  More than a brush, my friend.  You have painted in words and deeds a canvas revealing to us honestly and frankly what the past was and how it continues to influence, for good and ill, the present.  And in this way my friend, Mordy, has helped my generation Catholics to understand and to see what the future, a future based on mutual esteem and reconciliation between us as peoples of faith called into being by the One God, the God of Israel, might be like for the betterment of all humanity.  Mordecai Waxman was in the fullest sense a blessing to the Catholic community of this country and the world.  May his name be forever for a blessing in our memories.

 

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