Rabbi Rosen on shared challenge of bringing Good News to grassroots
(Vatican Radio) During meetings with Pope Francis and top Vatican officials on Thursday,
Jewish leaders shared hopes of a deepening of theological dialouge and increased practical
cooperation in service of the poor and needy. Members of the American Jewish Committee
met with the Pope and held talks with Vatican Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro
Parolin, as well as with the head of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations
with Jews, Cardinal Kurt Koch, sharing common concerns over protecting religious freedom,
working together for the common good and deepening the theological dialogue, ahead
of the 50th anniversary of the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate. Following
the audience, Philippa Hitchen caught up with Rabbi David Rosen, international director
of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, to find out more these
meetings, as well as challenges in Catholic-Jewish relations and Pope Francis’ upcoming
visit to the Holy Land next May:
Listen:
Rabbi Rosen
said: “What was really significant is the sense that a Jewish group comes for a meeting
with the Pope and there’s an atmosphere of a family reunion….this is not only his
remarkable charism as a personality, which we’ve seen has an impact right around the
world….but it’s especially so for the Jewish community….
This Pope’s friendships
and writing a book with a Jewish Rabbi, his visits to synagogues and opening his cathedral
for Holocaust commemorations all create a sense that it’s a reunion with a friend
– and a friend that really cares…
The biggest challenge for us is being able
to bring, if you like, the Good News to the grassroots around the world…..there are
many places where enormous ignorance about one another still prevails….I even meet
bishops some places who don’t know what (the Vatican II document) Nostra Aetate is
in terms of its content….
There are still plenty of relics of a tragic past
to be found and you can see in many parts of the world a resurgent anti-Semitism so
there’s plenty to reinforce historical fears…..but the Catholic Church today is part
of the solution, not part of the problem…
I would like to see a new document
that would not only draw together all essential teachings that have come out of the
Magisterium since the Second Vatican Council but also clarify some of the complex
issues in terms of the nature of our faith communities...."