Marking 50 years of Catholic-Jewish dialogue since Vatican II, the Pontifical Council for Religious Relations with Jews has published "The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable".

The document states that Catholics are called to witness to their faith in Jesus before all people, including Jews.

But Christianity and Judaism are intertwined and God never annulled his covenant with the Jewish people, stated the document.

"The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelisation to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views," it said.

"In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews."

The document explicitly states that it is not a "doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church", but a reflection.

Dr David Kessler, director of the Woolf Institute for the study of inter-religious relations in Cambridge, said it was the first time a repudiation of active conversion of Jews had been so clearly stated in a Vatican document.

How God will save the Jews if they do not explicitly believe in Christ is "an unfathomable divine mystery", the document states.

The new document states "there can only be one single covenant history of God with humanity".

At the same time, however, the document says God's covenant with humanity developed over time: it was first forged with Abraham, then the law was given to Moses, then new promises were given to Noah.

"Each of these covenants incorporates the previous covenant and interprets it in a new way," the document states

"That is also true for the New Covenant, which for Christians is the final eternal covenant and, therefore, the definitive interpretation of what was promised by the prophets."

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Tablet
• Image: UptoJerusalem.com

On the eve of this anniversary, the Anti-Defamation League — founded to protect Jewish lives and rights — called the Church's approval of Nostra Aetate "arguably the most important moment in modern Jewish-Christian relations." How so?

Q: What does "Nostra Aetate" mean?

A: It means "In Our Time." They are the first words of the declaration, which was written during the Second Vatican Council, the most far-reaching reform effort of the Roman Catholic Church in centuries.

The document's English title: "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions."

In the fourth of its five sections, Nostra Aetate focuses in on the relationship between Jews and Catholics.

By the way, the entire declaration is a quick read — little more than a page long.

Q: Yeah, but could I have the Cliff Notes version?

A: Nostra Aetate draws a poetic connection with Jews, describing them as the "well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles."

Crucially, it rejects the charge that the Jewish people are responsible for Jesus' death, an accusation used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.

The document reads: " . . . what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today."

The Church, it continues, "decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."

Q: Does Nostra Aetate mention the Holocaust?

A: No, but it was born of it. French Jewish historian Jules Isaac survived the Holocaust and then immersed himself in Christian texts, trying to understand how Christians could participate in Hitler's plan to murder Jews, or stand by as millions perished.

He concluded that a misinterpretation of the Gospels, a "teaching of contempt," had provided an excuse to persecute Jews for centuries, and that it must be supplanted by a teaching true to Jesus' message. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux
• Image: World Jewish Congress

Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff of Aachen said he could not "understand or implement" the revised version.

Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificam allowed for wider use of the 1962 missal.

A revised Good Friday prayer in the old rite was introduced for Holy Week in 2008.

The revised version of the prayer for Jews asks God to "illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all men".

Prior to Vatican II, the prayer had referred to the Jewish people as "faithless" and "blind" and called for them to "acknowledge Jesus Christ".

Minor corrections had been made until the 1970 version of the prayer which read: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the Word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant."

The 1970 prayer also asks God that the Jewish people arrive at the "fullness of redemption".

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, asked this month that the Church revoke the Good Friday prayer for the old rite.

His request came at a function organised by the German bishops' conference to mark Vatican II's Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions - Nostra Aetate.

Bishop Mussinghof said the revised form for the Extraordinary Rite should be revoked as it is a burden on Christian-Jewish relations.

"I never understood why Pope Benedict reintroduced it in the first place."

The secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, Fr Norbert Hofmann SDB, advised Mr Schuster to address his request directly to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Writing in a Tablet opinion piece, the secretary of the Committee for Catholic Jewish Relations of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Sr Margaret Shepherd, said the Jewish people have remained in a covenantal relationship with God through which they access salvation.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Taylor Marshall
• Image: FSSP