Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

According to Rabbi James Rudin, director of the interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, we are all the children of the Second Vatican Council. Rabbi Rudin makes that statement because Vatican II has ‘irreversibly changed the way we look at one another.” Before the Council, Jews often looked at the Church and saw an “eternal adversary,” a primary source of Christian anti-Semitism, a community that taught that Jews were Christ-killers and a body that said the only good Jew was a converted Jew.

The Jews looked at the Church and for 19 centuries sensed suspicion and potential persecution. All is not now perfect between Judaism and Catholicism but all are glad that movement toward greater understanding is well on its way.

The movement began with the Vatican Council and the document on the Jews which came from that great renewing Council 20 years ago. The document was called “Nostra Aetate” (“In Our Times”). A key statement of the document was,” The Church deplores the hatred, persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at any time and from any source.”

Both Jewish and Catholic communities are now commemorating that historic document and also the 20 years of growing relationships that have taken place. In February, the American Jewish Committee met with Pope John Paul in the Vatican and since then groups have been coming together in dialogue and celebration throughout the United States.

Next week, on Monday, May 20, a group will meet in Atlanta. Lead by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan and Father Alan Dillman, priest secretary of the Religious Unity Committee, and also Father John Pawlikowski of the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago for the Catholic community, and by Rabbi Arnold Goodman and Ms. Judith Banki, associate director of the interreligious affairs of the American-Jewish Committee, for the Jewish community, the gathering will meet at the Cathedral of Christ the King beginning at 4 p.m.

Speaking about this celebration, Judith Banki recalls being involved when the document was first issued 20 years ago. “It took three years to write,” said Mrs. Banki. “But it was most exciting. The Council banished the collective guilt of the Jews for the death of Christ and opened doors for better relationships on a local level throughout the world.”

“In the last 20 years,” said Judith Banki, whose office is located in New York, “more progress has been made between the Church and Jews than in the 2,000 years that preceded them. We now have a climate of trust and dialogue. Many have learned a lot but many Jews and Catholics are still not informed. These ongoing celebrations and meetings help to enlighten. So far our year of remembrance has gone very well. We look forward to Atlanta.” Those who lead these dialogues, which look at the past and the present, know that the future holds the toughest problems of all. “We know that we can’t agree on everything,” said Judith Banki, “and some of the problems we are coming up against are very difficult.”

“For example,” she goes on, “Dr. Eugene Fisher of the Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee did a study which finds that Catholics today use the scriptures more than ever before. This is good and wonderful, but it tends to bring up problems which are in the scriptures that Catholics never knew before. You have St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 27, verse 25, ‘His blood be upon us and our children.’ This is a difficult text within the context of dialogue and discussion.”

Judith Banki and other scholars are seeing the problems but are pressing on. The Vatican Council gave them a start, a document and new hope.

“We know,” says the very informed Ms. Banki, “that local fights between different groups of Jews at the time of Christ became fights between new Christians and Jews then eventually fights between the synagogue and the church. We know this. But now we are seeing it, studying it and talking about it.”

At the Atlanta meeting on Monday, May 20, subjects like historical perspective, liturgy, joint social action and “where are we going” will be discussed. It sounds like a not-to-be-missed occasion.