Cardinals to keep up dialogue with Jewish leaders after meeting

Published: 2004-01-21

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Participants in a Catholic-Jewish dialogue held in New York Jan. 19-20 at the initiative of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris and hosted by the World Jewish Congress announced plans to continue their efforts in the coming years. A communique issued at the conclusion of the World Symposium of Catholic Cardinals and Jewish Leaders said "the success of this encounter and the importance of the issues addressed calls for the convening of follow-up conferences in different continents." They said their next meeting would "address the challenges of general religious peace and confront the rise of hate and anti-Semitism." Father Patrick Desbois, the French bishops' secretary for Jewish relations and a key organizer of the New York symposium, said a date for the next meeting had not been set, but it would probably be held in Europe and seek to deal with the anti-Semitic incidents that have become a problem there. The communique also pledged that participants would work to "intensify and strengthen" dialogue on both the global and the local levels.

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