Jewish-Catholic Dialogue Focuses on Enviornment

(20 Jan 10- RV) On Wednesday the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel issued a statement at the end of their ninth meeting, held Jan 17-20, at the Vatican.


The statement begins by recalling Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to Rome’s Synagogue on Sunday, where the Pope categorically reaffirmed the commitment of the Catholic Church to dialogue and fraternity with the Jewish People, as well as unequivocally condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism.
 The Joint Commission notes that the meeting also took place in the shadow of the catastrophic tragedy in Haiti. The members express their prayers for the victims and for the recovery of the survivors and applaud the international rescue and aid for the reconstruction of the nation..


During the course of the meeting the members attended the moving presentation of Fr. Patrick Desbois at the Pontifical Gregorian University that highlighted the work of Yachad in Unum to locate and memorialize the unidentified sites in Eastern Europe of mass murder during the Shoah. The commission urged the respective religious communities to support and publicise this very important work, in order to learn from the tragedies of the past to protect and respect the sanctity of human life everywhere so that atrocities will never reoccur.

 The protection of creation was also the focus of the meeting and in relation to this, the document states that "Humankind today faces a unique environmental crisis which is substantially the product of unbridled material and technological exploitation. While this challenge must obviously be addressed through the necessary technical means as well as self restraint, humility and discipline", the commission "emphasized the essential need for society to recognize the transcendent dimension of Creation that is critical to ensure sustainable development and progress in an ethically responsible manner. Not everything that is technically feasible is morally acceptable. It is this consciousness that ensures that every aspect of human advancement promotes the wellbeing of future generations and sanctifies the Divine Name, just as its absence leads to destructive consequences for humanity and environment and profanes the Divine Name".