World Jewish Congress hosts New York visit of French Catholic bishops

Published: 2004-02-26

NEW YORK (CNS) -- A visit to New York under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress provided a way to see the diversity of the Jewish community not possible in France, a French bishop reported in an interview. Bishop Gaston Poulain of Perigueux, who headed the commission on Jewish relations for the French bishops in the 1990s, said there was a tendency to think that all Jews were alike. But he found that New York had many Jewish communities and all were "open to dialogue and worthy of being known." Bishop Poulain was part of a delegation of French bishops who were hosted by the World Jewish Congress Feb. 23-26. The visit was the third in a series hosted by the congress and arranged by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris, who was present for the first day of the bishops' program. Last year, he led a delegation of young priest-scholars with a background in Jewish and Hebrew studies on a New York visit to help prepare for the next stage in Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

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