“The Catholic Church will not go back on the “Nostra Aetate”
declaration because it cannot call the Council into question; this is
unthinkable. And the Holy Father cannot go turn his back on his
magisterium,” Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Vatican Commission
for Religious Relations with Jews said in a statement to Italian
Religious Information Service SIR. The statement was made ahead of the Day for Jewish-Christian dialogue which will be celebrated in Italy on 17 January.
The Swiss cardinal responded openly to the “concerns” triggered by the dialogue process between the Holy See and the Lefebvrians of the Society of St. Pius X.
“Jews – the cardinal said – are our elder brothers: Christians and Jews are inseparable, especially in Benedict XVI’s vision of the unity between the Two Testaments. This is the clear vision also in light of the Second Vatican Council Declaration “Nostra Aetate”.
The Catholic Church is in no doubt about the value this declaration still has today.
The only group that does not accept it are the Lefebvrians. As such, they do not accept ecumenical dialogue, relations with Jews or religious freedom.
But these are central to the Holy Father’s teaching and if a group does not accept the Council and does not accept a magisterium, they need to ask themselves how they see themselves as Catholic. This is the fundamental problem.”
The cardinal went on to recall what Fr. Lombardi had said regarding some remarks made by the head of the Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Fellay.
“Any form of anti-Semitism is contrary to Christianity and the Catholic Church must do all that is in its power to stop this.”