The Jewish-Catholic journey

Looking back at 40 years of Jewish –Catholic dialogue: that’s what will be on the agenda at a high profile meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee, taking place in Paris from February 27^th to March 2^nd. Leading the Vatican delegation will be cardinals Kurt Koch, Jean-Louis Tauran and Peter Turkson, together with patriarchs, bishops and experts from other countries engaged in interfaith dialogue.

The meeting will be held at the College des Bernardins, where Pope Benedict gave a key speech during his 2009 visit to Paris, and will also include a visit to the Drancy internment camp from where tens of thousands of French Jews were deported to the Nazi death camps during the Second World War.

Also taking part in this significant encounter is Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical council for Promoting Christian Unity which oversees the Vatican’s relations with the Jewish world. Philippa Hitchen sat down with him to find out more about the meeting and the current state of Catholic-Jewish relations

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"There is no doubt that it has been a long journey because the depth of mistrust was very great.......We have learnt down the years to trust each other more and more ....

The force of history is a great weight and it keeps cropping up .....but I would say that over recent years we have made striking progress, on the basis of Nostra Aetate... and at the present time we have made great efforts to approach the theological question and this deepens the conversation..."