In 1990, Jewish attendees of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee that met in Prague, Czechoslovakia, arrived with certain expectations. Naturally, discussion of past anti-Semitism was an agenda item. But because new waves of it were sweeping through parts of Eastern Europe and Russia in the wake of the tumbling Iron Curtain, some Jewish attendees asked the Committee to include present-day problems for discussion. Church representatives serving on the Committee were also concerned about the new manifestations. So they readily agreed. Even so, when Archbishop (now Cardinal) Edward Idris Cassidy rose to address the audience, no one - and certainly no one who was Jewish - was prepared for what he said. In a statement fully authorized and approved by Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Cassidy turned to his Jewish brethren and made a public, heartfelt apology for past anti-Semitism caused by or perpetrated by the Church. Even more astonishing to the assemblage, the Archbishop asked for forgiveness using the Hebrew word teshuvah, which signifies "turning away" from past wrong-doing and simultaneously "returning to" a righteous relationship with both man and God. "Anti-Semitism is
Anti-Christianity"
If Archbishop Cassidy's words burst like a thunderclap on the audience - and they did ("anti-Semitism is anti-Christianity and that anti-Christianity is anti-Semitism") - it is only because the important work that had been going on for nearly three decades to deepen the understanding between Christian and Jewish communities is not well known. Now, thanks to the contribution of Rabbis Jack Bemporad and Michael Shevak's remarkable and excellent little book, Our Age, a wider audience will have the opportunity to learn just how far relations between Christians and Jews have come in the recent past. Indeed, the authors' stated goal - "to present clearly and concisely" the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and what they mean to both Catholics and Jews - is amply met. As John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, writes in his foreword, the authors have written "...as honest and evenhanded a treatment of Jewish-Christian relations as I have ever read ... I am deeply grateful for Our Age." So, too, can the reader be grateful for some of the things he or she will learn from these pages. For example, it is not well known how frequently in her recent documents and statements the Roman Catholic Church has reaffirmed the special place of Jews in the mind and eye of God. One document states that the Jewish people "...still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for he does not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls he issues." ("Declaration of the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.") Making the same point, Pope John Paul II, in an address to the Jewish Community of Australia on November 26, 1986, said "...it is the teaching of both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures that the Jews are beloved of God, who has called them with an irrevocable calling." Special Relationship
If these breakthroughs in understanding come as a surprise, that is another reason to read Our Age. The book's title comes from the two opening Latin words, nostra aetate (our age), of Vatican II's "Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions." Besides describing the progress in mutual understanding that has taken place in the recent past, the authors also:
The last point is particularly important. In a world filled with so much divisiveness, hatred and genocide. Rabbis Bemporad and Shevak present a challenge and a vision that should not be ignored. "Imagine," they write, "if the spirit of reconciliation could begin first between Jews and Catholics, and then spread to include other Christians, Moslems, Hindus, all God's peoples, all those who seek truth with reverence for the Divine Mystery in their hearts?" Imagine indeed!
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