Senior Vatican delegation reaffirm “chosen” status of Jews
A senior Vatican delegation reaffirmed the “chosen” status of the Jews on Thursday, at the end of an annual meeting with representatives of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem.
The Bilateral Commission of the delegations of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews concluded the three-day meeting Thursday, the theme of which was the challenges of faith and religious leadership in secular society.
The Catholic delegation, led by Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejìa, “took the opportunity to reiterate the historic teaching of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate (No. 4) regarding the Divine Covenant with the Jewish People that “the Jews still remain most dear to God because of their Fathers, for He does not repent of the gifts He makes, nor of the calls He issues (cf. Romans 11:28- 29),” the commission’s joint statement said.
Whilst on the subject of the Jews, I found this disturbing.
Tags: Church Life, Israel
April 2nd, 2011 at 12:58 pm
I am so glad that the Vatican delegation saw fit to reiterate the statements made in Nostra Aetate. Although to some it will be too little, too late, it is an important reversal of a centuries-old view that teaches that the Jewish covenant has been repealed and transferred to the Christian Church (“new Israel”). This form of replacement theology has been damaging (to say the *very* least) to both communities and the Vatican (to say nothing of other Christian denominations) needs to reiterate this reversal at every opportunity.
I have been concerned at the seeming sidelining of Jewish-Christian relations since 2001 (for which 9/11 was largely responsible). Christian-Muslim relations are important, and I am involved to a small extent in this area, but there is a lot more work to be done in JCR and the church needs to make sure we follow up on the progress that was made towards the end of last century.
I too find the news at the end of your link disturbing. It is surely far too serious to be an April Fool, though I suppose that cannot be entirely ruled out (who knows what some people might do?).
April 2nd, 2011 at 1:23 pm
@Revsimmy, I couldn’t agree more.
Sadly, the cosmetic Ahava store story is true and broke on the 31st in the JC.com.