Confusion in the Church

Ijoined the Roman Catholic Church in 1985 and only left, for a similar but more permissive and progressive Anglo- Catholicism, less than two years ago. I retain, however, a great love for the Church of Rome and have long written to counter some of the prejudices thrown unfairly against it.

One is that it is riddled with anti-Semitism. As the son of a Jewish father, I seldom faced any anti- Jewish feelings — usually the precise contrary. When I did, it was from the far- right fringes of Catholicism where disdain for almost everybody is part of their dark cultural norm.

Yet it cannot be denied that recent moves toward racial acceptance or even philoSemitism are relatively recent. The history of the Church’s attitude toward the Jews is not a noble one and while there have always been individual Catholic leaders who called for acceptance, the sweeping theme was one of subjugation, humiliation and holding all of the Jewish people for all time responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jews were placed in ghettos, allowed to exist in Christian society as examples of those who rejected Christ, treated as useful pawns and then expelled when it was politically opportune. It’s intellectually and historically vacuous to blame the Holocaust on Catholicism or Christianity in general, but there is no doubt that many centuries of Church anti- Semitism created a context and enabled a specific hatred.

The Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s transformed a relationship that had already been improving on an i nformal and pragmatic l e vel. The council called for a new fraternity between Catholics and Jews, emphasized that the Jewish people were indeed a chosen race and that modern Jewry had nothing to do with what happened to the Son of God 2,000 years ago. Then we had a succession of popes who evinced an exquisite empathy for the Jews, culminating in Pope Francis and his profound friendships with Argentinian rabbinical leaders in particular.

But l ast week that new relationship made a startling jump forward, and one that has, truth be told, con- f used and e ven s hocked many Roman Catholics. In a 10,000- word document entitled “The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable,” the Vatican stated that the Jewish people do not need to be converted to Christianity to find salvation and specifically called on Catholics not to try to convert them.

“The Catholic Church,” it stated, “neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed toward the Jews.” It acknowledged that salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone but affirmed that, “it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.”

It comes 50 years after the Church’s Nostra Aetate ( In Our Time), a seminal report that redefined the relationship between Jews and Catholics; but since that time there have been numerous conversions and the establishment of an international organization of “Hebrew Catholics” to spread the Catholic message to the Jewish people. Major Catholic publishers such as Ignatius Press have produced books by Jewish converts discussing their stories and while gentleness and understanding have dominated the dynamic, the notion of sharing truth out of love has never been abandoned. Which obliges Catholics to wonder what happens now.

The new document itself admits, albeit loosely, that there is an inherent paradox or even inconsistency in all this. It explains, “that the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery.” Quite so.

Many on the Catholic right have, predictably, reacted angrily and see this as further proof that the Pope is intent on destroying their church. After the recent synod they’re convinced that he wants to allow remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist and welcome gay people into full communion. In fact that synod produced little other than words, and while it would be a glorious blessing if the divorced and the actively gay were embraced as the complete Christians they most certainly are, it is incredibly unlikely to happen.

In this case, though, there are some challenges that go beyond Catholic conservatism and certainly beyond anti-Semitism. If a Jewish person seeks conversion, should a priest explain that it’s not particularly necessary? Is it irrelevant whether a mixed Catholic- Jewish couple raises their children as Jews or Christians? And what of the Biblical call to bring all people to Jesus Christ?

This is not about sociology but theology, and while every rational Christian understands the need for subtlety, courtesy and the gentlest of approaches to a people who have suffered so much, the biting reality of religious relativism and equivalents is leaving a great many questions unanswered, for Jews as well as for Catholics.

If Catholics no longer believe that Jews must accept Christ to be saved, what else has changed?