The Day of catholic-Jewish dialogue in Italy
Since 1990, on January 17 of every year, Catholic churches, theological institutes and Jewish-Catholic Friendship associations all over Italy program events pertaining to the Jewish-Catholic religious dialogue. This date immediately precedes the annual week of ecumenical prayer for Christian Unity.
The temporal proximity is no accident. Ever since the promulgation of the Vatican II document, “Nostra Aetate”, Judaism has been recognized as containing the roots of Christianity, a living and contemporary “elder brother” in faith, vital to Christianity. For these identical reasons the “Commission for Religious Relations with Jews” is housed within the Pontifical Council for promoting Christian Unity – plus, of course, the historical role of the Council’s first president, Cardinal Agostino Bea, in promoting “the document on the Jews” during the Council.
This temporal, physical, historical closeness may slip into the terrain of ambiguity, when, on the Jewish side, fears of the return of Catholic proselytism arise and interfere temporarily with the flow of dialogue. This happened in 2009 when the Italian rabbinate annulled its participation in the January 17 encounters in protest over the rewritten Latin Good Friday “Prayer for the Conversion of the Jews” published as part of the resuscitated Tridentine mass missal. Peace was restored between leaders of the two religions after letters between the Vatican Secretariat of State and Israel’s Chief Rabbinate were exchanged, and the “Osservatore Romano” published explanatory articles by Cardinal Walter Kasper and Fr. Norbert Hofmann, respectively President and Secretary of the Commission, specifying that Catholic “hopes” for Jewish conversion to Christianity are “eschatological”, and regard only the end of times rather than the here and now.
Since the first brotherly colloquium in 1990 by the Italian Bishops Conference (Cei) at the Campitelli Parish Church near Rome’s ancient ghetto, where Rome’s former Chief Rabbi, Elio Toaff, and the former Auxiliary Bishop of Rome, Msgr. Clemente Riva (of blessed memory), met to discuss commonalities and concerns, attempting to forge a new, creative relationship between Judaism and Christianity, this “Day of Dialogue” has spread all over Italy.
source: catholic.net
