Monday, September 14, 2009

In the Spirit of Father Feeney?

"He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God's commands." - Pope Pius XII, Vatican Radio broadcast to the people of France, June 1943.

"Mark well, we call Abraham our Patriarch, our ancestor. Anti-Semitism is irreconcilable with this lofty thought...Anti-Semitism is inadmissible; spiritually we are all Semites." - Pope Pius XI to Belgian Pilgrims, September 6, 1938.


"As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.

Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith -are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.

The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.

As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation, nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading. Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle. In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).

Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.

Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows." - Nostra Aetate, No. 4 of the Second Vatican Council.


Related reading here.

6 comments:

Meredith said...

C.J. Doyle should withdraw from the 2009 Saint Benedict Center conference. It's only going to tarnish his image and that of the Catholic Action League. Hopefully he makes the right decision. Pray to the Blessed Mother that he disassociates from this event.

Alzina said...

Meredith, if Doyle doesn't have any problem with the Jews being referred to as anti-Christ people or with Holocaust denial, wouldn't that speak to his idea of Catholicism? And how can others take him seriously on matters such as abortion, homosexuality etc if he has no difficulty with anti-Semitism? You have to wonder what he believes. Unless he distances himself from this group, and soon, it's only going to undermine his moral credibility.

Anonymous said...

Faithful Catholics should have nothing to do with them. The Bishop has asked Catholics not to participate in their spiritual activities. Evidently C.J. Doyle has no intention of listening to the Bishop and think that is troubling too. It seems to suggest that he doesn't recognize the Bishop's authority doesn't it Meredith? Either that or he doesn't care.

Derek said...

I like what Pope Pius XII said: "He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God's commands." The SBC does make a distinction between Jews and other men. So they are being unaithfl to God...They are in conflict with God's commands...they are not in communion with the Church. Which is why Rome doesn't recognize them.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Michael Brown posted this interesting link at his website Spirit Daily:

Pope to ultra-traditionalists: respect other religions:
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/14/1007834/pope-to-renegades-respect-jews-other-religions

John Ansley said...

"Nostra Aetate marked a milestone in the journey towards reconciliation, and clearly outlined the principles that have governed the Church's approach to Christian-Jewish relations ever since." - Pope Benedict XVI.

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