Troubled Reconciliation

In the spirit of the Holy Year's theme of reconciliation, the Vatican last week made public a new set of guidelines to improve relations between Roman Catholics and Jews. Despite the document's amicable intentions, its initial reception was lukewarm. Jewish leaders criticized it for omissions or what they perceived as overtones of Catholic evangelism, and Vatican spokesmen found themselves on the defensive.

The guidelines, issued by a two-month-old Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, were intended to implement a declaration by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 which, among other things, had declared that all Jews could not be blamed for the death of Jesus. That document, for which Jews like the late Theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel had long labored, also called for building positive relations between the two faiths.

The guidelines candidly admit that Jewish-Christian relations "have scarcely ever risen above a monologue." To help promote a "real dialogue," they emphasize ways to bury residual Catholic prejudice and misunderstanding. An important section on education warns that "the Old Testament and the Jewish tradition founded upon it must not be set against the New Testament in such a way that the former seems to constitute a religion of only justice, fear and legalism, with no appeal to the love of God and neighbor." It then cites biblical passages to demonstrate the love of both in Judaism.

Full Meaning. A section on liturgy warns that Catholic preachers must carefully explain biblical references about Jews that could be understood as pejorative characterizations of the whole people, as for example in the Gospel according to John. The guidelines point out that Old and New Testaments "illumine and explain each other," yet they also state that "the New Testament brings out the full meaning of the Old."

It is that note of superiority, together with a declaration that "the church must preach Jesus Christ to the world," that irritated a number of Jewish leaders. In a statement of reply, the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations welcomed the guidelines' "urgent condemnation of anti-Semitism and discrimination," but objected to "the suggestion that Judaism look outside its own doctrine and dogmas for fulfillment." It also questioned the compatibility of Christian evangelization with the guidelines' assertion that "dialogue demands respect for the other as he is."

Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, longtime ecumenical envoy between Jews and Christians, praised some aspects of the guidelines as "constructive," but took grave exception to other parts. Tanenbaum said that "no self-respecting Jew" could live with passages that "imply a religious 'second-class' status" for Judaism. What especially grieved Tanenbaum and other Jewish critics was the guidelines' silence on Jewish historic and spiritual ties to the land of Israel. Any definition of contemporary Judaism that does not consider "the inextricable bonds of God, People, Torah and Promised Land," wrote Tanenbaum, "risks distortion of the essential nature of Judaism."

The omission of any direct reference to Israel's place in Judaism was a victory for factions in the Vatican Secretariat of State who are known to favor better relations with Arab states. To Jews, it appeared to be a clear step backward from an earlier working draft of guidelines in 1969--leaked at that time to the press but subsequently shelved--which urged Christians to "respect the religious significance of this link between the people and the land." Tanenbaum and other Jewish leaders are scheduled to meet this week in Rome with their Vatican counterparts, and that link between Jews and Israel will doubtless loom large in their conversations.

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