Back to the Ice Age? The Roman Catholic Church and Judaism

Abstract

Until well into the twentieth century, Jews and Christians had no mutual basis for discourse. The Christian–Jewish dialogue and the rapprochement between the Holy See and the State of Israel are owed in essence to feelings of shame regarding the Shoah. The Second Vatican Council and the pontificate of John Paul II signified substantial breakthroughs. Since then, though, the sense of guilt has eased, and the Roman Catholic Church's awareness of the injustice of its role as fellow traveller to, and henchman of, the Third Reich has diminished. Under the current Pope, Benedict XVI, the relationship between Jews and Catholics has noticeably deteriorated. After five years of his pontificate, Joseph Ratzinger has lost a great deal of trust, and not only among Jews.

Keywords:

• Christian–Jewish dialogue
• Second Vatican Council
• Pauline theology
• Christology
• ethics
• Trinity
• original sin
• justification through faith
• Holocaust
• Shoa
• Kiddush Hashem
• martyrdom
• enlightenment
• Holy See
• Nostra Aetate
• Mortara Affair
• Mission to the Jews
• Tridentine mass
• Good Friday Prayer
• Society of St. Pius X.
• Jesus the Jew

Acknowledgement

Thanks to William Hiscott who provided the translation from German into English

Notes

 1. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, William Hiscott.

 2. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, 58.

 3. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, 60.

 4. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, 67.

 5. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, 68.

 6. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, 74.

 7. Verband der Deutschen Juden, ed., Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen, vol. III, ed. Walter Homolka (Munich: Knesebeck 1999; originally published Leipzig: Gustav Engel Verlag, 1930), 58. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are those of the translator, 84, quotation according to Aggadat Bereshit, trans. Lieve M. Teugels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, vol. 4 (Leiden et al.: Brill, 2001), 100.

 8. quotation according to Aggadat Bereshit, trans. Lieve M. Teugels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, vol. 4 (Leiden et al.: Brill, 2001), 106.

 9. quotation according to Aggadat Bereshit, trans. Lieve M. Teugels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, vol. 4 (Leiden et al.: Brill, 2001), 121.

10. quotation according to Aggadat Bereshit, trans. Lieve M. Teugels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, vol. 4 (Leiden et al.: Brill, 2001), 155.

11. quotation according to Aggadat Bereshit, trans. Lieve M. Teugels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, vol. 4 (Leiden et al.: Brill, 2001), 172.

12. quotation according to Aggadat Bereshit, trans. Lieve M. Teugels, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series, vol. 4 (Leiden et al.: Brill, 2001), 205.

13. Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, trans. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), 47:267.

14. Pope John Paul II, Ansprache an den Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland und die Rabbinerkonferenz in Mainz (Address to the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Rabbinical Conference in Mayence), November 17, 1980, in Die Kirchen und das Judentum, eds. Rolf Rendtorff, and Hans Hermann Henrix, vol. 1, Dokumente von 1945–1985 (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 2001), 76. English translation as cited by Discussion Group ‘Jews and Christians’ of the Central Committee of German Catholics, ed., ‘Jews and Christians in Germany, Responsibility in Today's Pluralistic Society’, April 13, 2005, http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?item = 2571.

15. Pope John Paul II, Address at the Great Synagogue of Rome, April 13, 1986, http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/cjrelations/resources/documents/catholic/johnpaulii/romesynagogue.htm.

16. John T. Pawlikowski, Judaism and Christianity III, in TRE (Theologische Realenzyklopädie) XVII (1988), 390–403; and John T. Pawlikowski, ‘Reflections on Covenant and Mission’, in Themes in Jewish-Christian Relations, ed. Edward Kessler, Melanie J. Right, and John T. Pawlikowski (Cambridge: Orchard Academic, 2005), 273–99.

17. Walter Cardinal Kasper, Rede bei der Begegnung mit Rabbinern und Vertretern des Vatikans (Speech at a Meeting between Rabbis and Representatives of the Vatican), March 9, 2006, http://www.deutscher-koordinierungsrat.de/04_02_mehr.php?pNUM = 3&mID = 55.

18. Rabbi Henry G. Brandt, Rede bei der Begegnung mit Rabbinern und Vertretern des Vatikans (Speech at a Meeting of Rabbis and Representatives of the Vatican), March 9, 2006, http://www.deutscher-koordinierungsrat.de/04_02_mehr.php?pNUM = 3&mID = 60.

19. The emphasis of the synodal decision of 1980 is on the never-revoked covenant between God and his people of Israel. It thus rejects the false, anti-Semitic tradition, according to which the old covenant of God with Israel was replaced with a new covenant in Jesus Christ, into which both the church and humanity entered. On this basis, the Grundartikel der Kirchenordnung (Basic Articles of the Order of the Church) were revised in 1996, in which the Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland (Evangelical Church in the Rhineland) ‘testifies to God's enduring faithfulness to his chosen people of Israel. It hopes with Israel for a new heaven and a new earth’. Kirchenordnung der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland, Art. 1, http://www.ekir.de/www/downloads/ekir2008-05-01KO.pdf.

20. Pope Benedict XVI, Letter of his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the Remission of the Excommunication of the Four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre, March 10, 2009, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20090310_remissione-scomunica_en.html.

21. Pope John Paul II, Ansprache an den Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland und die Rabbinerkonferenz in Mainz (Address to the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Rabbinical Conference in Mayence), November 17, 1980, in Die Kirchen und das Judentum, ed. Rendtorff and Henrix, 75. Engl. translation as cited by Henrix. The Covenant has never been revoked, Basis of the Christian–Jewish Relationship, http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?item = 814.

22. ‘Some view the fact that Jesus was a Jew and that his milieu was that of the Jewish world as simply a cultural coincidence, one which could be replaced by another religious inculturation and separated from the Lord as a person without losing their identity. But these people do not merely misunderstand the history of salvation, for it is even more radical. They are attacking the truth of incarnation itself, thereby making an authentic perception of his inculturation impossible’, Pope John Paul II, Ansprache an die Teilnehmer des vatikanischen Kolloquiums über die Wurzeln des Antijudaismus im christlichen Bereich am 31. Oktober 1997, in Die Kirchen und das Judentum, ed. Hans Hermann Henrix and Wolfgang Kraus, vol. 2, Dokumente von 1986–2000 (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 2001), 109.