The historic reconciliation between Jews and Roman
Catholics over the past 40 years should be extended to Muslims to deal
with the challenges of the 21st century, a senior Jewish official has
said.
The regular dialogue the two faiths have maintained since
the Church renounced anti-Semitism at the Second Vatican Council should
be "a model for transformed relations with Islam," Rabbi Richard Marker
told an interfaith conference.
Marker addressed the opening
session last weekend of a meeting reviewing four decades of
Catholic-Jewish efforts to forge closer ties after 1,900 years.
"Forty
years in the histories of two great world religions is but a blink of an
eye," said Marker, chairman of the International Jewish Committee for
Interreligious Consultation. "But 40 years of a relationship is a sign
of its maturity.
"The focus of the world is no longer specifically
on Jewish-Christian amity. We must, for so many reasons, involve the
third of our Abrahamic siblings ... Islam."
Major faiths have held
countless bilateral meetings to foster better ties since the Second
Vatican Council (1962-1965) launched the world's largest church on the
path of dialogue.
Christian and Jewish leaders increasingly meet their
Muslim counterparts to seek common ground and understanding, but none of
these discussions have the history or depth of the Catholic-Jewish
dialogue officially begun in 1971.
In those 40 years, the Catholic
Church has apologized for its sins against the Jewish people and
recognized Judaism as its spiritual "elder brother," a step that Jewish
leaders praise as a historic change.
The dialogue has not always been easy.
There is still much mutual misunderstanding at the grassroots level.
Cardinal
Kurt Koch, the Vatican's top official for relations with Judaism, told
the meeting that Pope Benedict's three visits to synagogues were more
than those of any other pope.
Benedict has also been harshly criticized
by Jews for ending the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop and
promoting sainthood for Pope Pius XII, who Jews allege did not do
enough to save their people from the Nazis during World War Two.
The following is a timeline of Catholic-Jewish relations since the first papal visit to Israel.
1964:
Pope Paul VI is the first modern pope to visit the Holy Land. During
the visit he avoids using the word Israel, which the Vatican did not
recognise at the time.
1965: The Second Vatican Council issues a
document, "Nostra Aetate" ("In Our Times"), renouncing anti-Semitism and
rejecting the idea of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus.
1971: The International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee holds the first of its biannual meetings in Paris.
1986:
Pope John Paul II visits Rome's synagogue, becoming the first pope in
nearly 2,000 years to visit a Jewish place of worship and saying Jews
are "our beloved elder brothers."
1994: Vatican and Israel forge full diplomatic ties.
1998:
Vatican apologizes for Catholics who failed to help Jews against Nazi
persecution but also defends wartime Pope Pius XII from accusations that
he ignored the Holocaust.
2000: Pope John Paul visits Israel and its Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and prays at Jerusalem's Western Wall.
2005: Pope Benedict, who was enrolled by force into the Hitler Youth as a boy, visits a Cologne synagogue. Jewish leaders urge the Vatican to open all its wartime archives.
2008: Pope Benedict approves a prayer for traditionalist Good Friday services that Jews say calls for their conversion
2009: Benedict lifts the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops, one of whom denies the Holocaust. This leads to an outcry and deep rift with Jews, with whom Benedict expresses his "full and unquestionable solidarity." In a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories in May, Benedict distances himself from Holocaust deniers.
2010: Benedict visits the Rome Synagogue and hears renewed criticism of Pius XII. In November, Jewish leaders react negatively to comments by the pontiff that his wartime predecessor Pius was a "great, righteous" man who "saved more Jews than anyone else."
2011: In a book to be released March 10, Benedict gives a detailed analysis of why Jews must not collectively be blamed for the death of Christ.