The Vatican launched a new document on Catholic-Jewish relations which says that Catholics are called to witness to their faith in Jesus before all people, including Jews, but that the Catholic Church “neither conducts nor supports” any institutional missionary initiative directed at Jews. Called The Gifts and Calling of God Are Irrevocable, it said evangelisation towards Jews was seen in a “different manner” to evangelisation directed at other non-Christians.
What the media are saying
Most media outlets took the line “Vatican says Catholics should not try to convert Jews”, with the Times of Israel reporting that it “also unequivocally stated that the Catholic Church should not actively seek to convert Jews to Christianity, and called for the Church to work to eliminate anti-Semitism”. There was a slightly different take on the liberal American website Slate: “The idea that salvation – eternal life in heaven – can be available to those who did not declare a belief in Jesus’s divinity during their lifetimes is one that Catholics are open to. How exactly does that work, given that the belief that Jesus is the Messiah has been the defining characteristic of the Catholic church’s idea of salvation for millennia?” In the words of the document itself, it’s a mystery.
What the vaticanisti are saying
John Allen, writing at Crux, said the document introduced nothing new but still “showed how far we’ve come”. Once, he said, “to call Jewish/Catholic relations ‘strained’ would have been putting things mildly … there was little formal theological exchange [and] feelings on both sides were dominated by the weight of history”. The blog Rorate Caeli pointed out that “To our knowledge, this document contains the most explicit rejection so far by the Vatican of any attempt to convert Jews to Catholicism, even as it affirms the ‘universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ’. It also contains an extended attack on supersessionism [the idea that Christianity has replaced Judaism] which is explicitly named as a target of the document.”
The most overlooked story of the week
✣Militants blow up Catholic church in Yemen
What happened?
Islamists blew up an abandoned Catholic church in the Yemeni city of Aden last week after ISIS terrorists assassinated the city’s governor. The Immaculate Conception church was built in the 1960s under British rule, and was already severely damaged after a Saudi-led coalition air strike in May.
Why was it under-reported?
Islamists have carried out numerous atrocities in the country, which has descended into a three-sided civil war in past months involving ISIS, the government and an Iranian-backed Shia group called the Houthi. Aden was once a cosmopolitan city with Christians, Hindus and Jews, but since independence and three civil wars the country has become dominated by Islamists. One resident told Reuters: “We heard a strong explosion which sent a big plume of smoke into the air and afterward saw that the building was completely destroyed.”
What will happen next?
There are an estimated 2,000 Catholics in the Arabian country, out of a Christian population of 20,000, most of whom are Ethiopian Orthodox, although there are none left in Aden. Their prospects look extremely bleak. So far almost 6,000 Yemenis have died in the conflict, which falls along sectarian lines, the Houthi being Shia and the government Sunni-dominated. The good news is that Christian rights in the rest of the Arabian peninsula, traditionally the least tolerant part of the Middle East, are slowly improving.
✣The week ahead
Today Pope Francis is expected to open a “Holy Door of Charity” at the Caritas hostel in Rome as part of the Year of Mercy celebrations. The hostel is located close to Rome’s Termini Station and is in the process of being renovated so it can house 180 people. Pope Francis will also visit the hostel’s canteen, which is named after St John Paul II.
The Vatican Christmas tree (pictured) will be lit up in St Peter’s Square this evening to mark the imminent festive season. The 82 foot fir tree was transported from Bavaria. A Nativity scene featuring 24 life-size figures is also present.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth will celebrate baptisms with a difference tomorrow as he visits HMP Winchester to welcome prisoners into the Catholic Church and to celebrate Mass for them. On the same day Bishop Alan Williams of Brentwood will visit Chelmsford Prison to celebrate Mass there.
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