U.S. Jewish leaders have expressed concern over a June statement issued by the U.S. bishops to clarify a 2002 document that raised questions about the church’s mission of evangelization and how the church relates to the Jewish community.
In a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the leaders said that because of the statement dialogue between the two faiths is at risk.
Representatives of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee and rabbis from various branches of Judaism sent the letter Aug. 20.
“Though Christian participation in interreligious dialogue would not normally include an explicit invitation to baptism and entrance into the church, the Christian dialogue partner is always giving witness to the following of Christ, to which all are implicitly invited,” the committees’ note said.
How could it not be so? As one of my old professors wrote, “The truth is an affair of the spirit” — which is different than saying I’m right and you’re wrong. To interpret that as inviting, “Jews to become Catholic” is simply, . . . well, I don’t know. But it’s an objection that renders dialogue impossible. Of course, the dialogue between BXVI and Jacob Neusner provides a blinding contrast to this kind of nonsense.
[i]Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., who heads the doctrine committee, said the USCCB “reaffirms what the Holy See has stated repeatedly: that while the Catholic Church does not proselytize the Jewish people, neither does she fail to witness to them her faith in Christ, nor to welcome them to share in that same faith whenever appropriate.”[/i]
What is that supposed to mean?