Anti-semitism 'still blights Church'

Anti-Semitic tendencies in the Church persist "not only among traditionalists but also among liberal theologians," the cardinal in charge of the Church's relations with Jews has said.

Speaking to the Swiss Jewish weekly Tachles on 18 August, the President of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, Cardinal Kurt Koch, cited as examples those occasions when theologians speak of the Old Testament as having been "replaced" by the New or declare that Judaism is a "religion of laws" while Christianity is a "religion of love".

Cardinal Koch firmly rejected his interviewer's suggestion that Christian-Jewish dialogue had deteriorated under Pope Benedict XVI. 

"Oral dialogue is much more important than written [dialogue]," Cardinal Koch argued. 

The Vatican was now on "very friendly terms indeed" with Jewish organisations, he said.