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| Pope Benedict XVI presents a copy of a page taken from an illuminated 15th-century manuscript from the Vatican Library to Rabbi Arthur Schneier at the Park East Synagogue in New York April 18. The work of a Hebrew scribe who lived in Italy, the page depicts the scene of a traditional Jewish wedding.
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By J. Michael Parker
For Today’s Catholic
Pope Benedict XVI’s warm enthusiasm for the Catholic Church’s special relationship with Judaism is genuine and deeply felt, a rabbi who has spent nearly all his adult life participating in dialogue with the Holy See told Today’s Catholic recently.
Rabbi Jack Bemporad, founder and director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding in Carlstadt, N.J., teaches interreligious studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. He has met every pope since Pope John XXIII and has had long friendships with leading Vatican and U.S. cardinals involved in the Catholic-Jewish dialogues.
While visiting relatives in San Antonio, he made time for an interview about where the relationship is moving during this pontificate.
Although perhaps no pope is likely to surpass the monumental impact Pope John Paul II made on Catholic-Jewish relations, Bemporad said, “During his U.S. visit in April, Pope Benedict made a very good impression and was very warmly received.”
Just as Jews largely feared in 1978 that a Polish pope — John Paul II — might reverse the progress in Catholic-Jewish relations since the Second Vatican Council, many Jews in 2005 feared that the German pope who succeeded him also might want to return to the pre-Vatican II attitude.
Instead, not only has Pope Benedict continued the legacy of his predecessor, but in some respects he has moved even further, the rabbi said.
For example, five months ago in Washington, D.C., Pope Benedict met with Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Jain leaders April 17, but one thing particularly impressed Rabbi Bemporad, who was present.
“Pope Benedict could have just given a simple Passover greeting while he was with the whole interfaith group; instead, he made a point of meeting in another room with only the Jews, and he gave us an enthusiastic Passover greeting,” the rabbi said, adding, “I found his warmth very refreshing.”
The next day, the pontiff was applauded warmly when he visited the Park East Synagogue in New York, becoming the first pope ever to visit an American synagogue. He had visited a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, in 2005. “In all his trips to the United States, Pope John Paul II never visited a synagogue,” the rabbi said.
Meanwhile, last year’s controversy over Pope Benedict’s encouraging wider use of the Tridentine Mass was mishandled, he said, but “he’s done everything he could to reassure the Jewish community of his warm feelings for us.”
Because the 1962 Roman Missal, the approved missal for such liturgies, contains an insulting reference to Jews in its Good Friday rites, the pope’s encouragement of the Mass appeared to many Jews as a sign he wanted to return to pre-Vatican II Catholic attitudes toward them.
But Rabbi Bemporad insists that was a misperception. Cardinal Kasper assured Jewish leaders that nothing was going to reverse or water down the teaching of Vatican II or the progress achieved in 43 years of dialogues.
He added that Pope Benedict also has shown that he takes very seriously a document issued by the Pontifical Biblical Commission about the Old Testament.
The document, titled “The Jewish People and Their Sacred Texts in the Christian Bible,” affirms that the New Testament cannot be understood apart from the Old Testament; that Jewish interpretations of Scripture in rabbinic literature were valid, that Jews have every right to interpret the New Testament in their own way and that they have every right to await the coming of the Messiah, Rabbi Bemporad said.
While the pontiff considers Catholicism’s 43-year friendship with Judaism a “special” relationship, the rabbi said Pope Benedict is deeply concerned about the need for candor in all interfaith dialogue.
“Many people in these dialogues try to find common ground. But Catholics have to be in dialogue as Catholics and Jews have to be in dialogue as Jews. I’ve said the same thing for years, and Pope Benedict believes this very strongly.
“You’re not there to seek agreement; you’re there to seek understanding. In the past, there has been too much looking at what we have in common and too little attention to the things that really separate us,” he said.
Rabbi Bemporad said he has told Christians in dialogue, “There are so many views about Christ among Christians that you give me nothing to disagree with. That doesn’t help Christians to be Christians.”
One of Pope Benedict’s major interfaith concerns is to bring the church more into dialogue with Islam. In fact, for all the anger and controversy over the pope’s September 2006 lecture at the University of Regensburg, Germany, its more important and lasting effect has been to prompt Muslim leaders to reach out to the Holy See to engage in dialogue on the issue of faith and reason, which was the subject of the Regensburg lecture, the rabbi said.
Last year, 138 Muslim leaders and scholars signed a statement addressed to Christian leaders, including the pope, affirming that Muslims and Christians must acknowledge their similarities and their common belief in one God for the good of the entire world.
“They agreed that love of God and neighbor, as found in the Christian and Jewish Scriptures, are revealed teachings and that elements of those Scriptures have revelational authority — that they’re not just distortions of God’s revelation in the Koran,” he said.
“The statement has become a basis for real dialogue.” For example, several members of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue have been meeting with Shi’ite Muslim representatives as a result of the address. They are exploring the Regensburg address and Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). They’re also talking about the tremendous rational tradition in Christianity, especially in the work of Thomas Aquinas, the rabbi said. “There is no question that gradually, the church’s dialogue with the Muslims will be of the kind it has had with the Jews. The paradigm for all future dialogues of the Catholic Church with other religions is the Second Vatican Council and the Catholic-Jewish dialogue that has grown and deepened since the council,” Rabbi Bemporad said.
J. Michael Parker is OST director of communications. E-mail mparker@ost.edu.