The document must be interpreted in context. First, it must be considered in light of the growth in understanding between Jews and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council, and the corresponding development of the Church's teaching regarding the Jews. The Vatican 2 declaration, Nostra Aetate (1965), marks the beginning of this development.
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....
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. [emphasis added]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) speaks of the unique relationship between the Church and the Jewish people:
839 "Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways."
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, "the first to hear the Word of God." The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ", "for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."
840 And when one considers the future, God's People of the Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah, whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.
On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II included a day of forgiveness as part of the celebration of the Jubilee. This included prayers for forgiveness for the way Christians have treated the Jewish people
Let us pray that, in recalling the sufferings endured by the people of Israel throughout history, Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by not a few of their number against the people of the covenant and the blessings, and in this way will purify their hearts.Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity:
The Holy Father: God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring Your Name to the nations: we are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of Yours to suffer, and asking Your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the covenant. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen. (As reported in The Pope Speaks.)
These Catholic statements stand in direct contrast to the recent statements of some other Christian groups. In 1996, for example, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a Resolution on Jewish Evangelism:
WHEREAS, There has been an organized effort on the part of some either to deny that Jewish people need to come to their Messiah, Jesus, to be saved; or to claim, for whatever reason, that Christians have neither right nor obligation to proclaim the gospel to the Jewish people...
BE IT RESOLVED ... That we recommit ourselves to prayer, especially for the salvation of the Jewish people...
...That we direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the gospel to the Jewish people.
Three years later, they called for Christians to pray for the conversion of the Jews during the Jewish High Holy Days. This Baptist commitment takes concrete form in Chosen People Ministries (formerly called the American Board of Missions to the Jews), which is their official organization for Jewish evangelism. This is what Reflections on Covenant and Mission says we cannot do, and this is perfectly in line with the development of Catholic teaching since Vatican 2.
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