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must bear witness to Christian
truth. They preached the gospel
that the Jews are an object of
divine wrath because they have
rejected the “Messiah.” Only when
they will see “the light” and re
pent, then God will restore them
to favor, to a natural life in the
Holy Land.
But suddenly an extraordinary
event took place. The State of Is
rael was restored by Divine Grace,
without the slightest intention on
the part of Jews to accept this
“Christian light.” No wonder then
• that the Christian hierarchy is
puzzled and mystified. The Jew
who was supposed to bear witness
to “Christian truth” is no longer a
competent witness.
True, the Vatican tried very
hard to solve this "Christian prob
lem” through the famous case of
Father Daniel who attempted to
create a new category of “Chris
tian Jews.” Now that this plan too
has been foiled by the Israeli Su
preme Court’s decision, the ques
tion for them still remains, what
to do with the State of Israel, the
existence of which refutes one of
the fundamental Christian be
liefs.
Furthermore, the State of Israel
also constitutes a political prob
lem for the Church. It is a fact
that the Vatican is much more
friendly to the Arabs than to Is
rael, if only because there are
many Christian Arabs in the Ara
bic lands. Should the Vatican rec
ognize the State of Israel, the Arab
countries might weii prohibit the
establishment or the maintenance
of Christian centers on their ter
ritories.
Another vexing problem is the
Christian attitude toward anti
semitism. That anti-semitism is
deeply rooted in Christian theology
cannot be denied. That the Church
is responsible for numerous mas
sacres of Jews throughout history
is also a fact. But how is this
hatred compatible with the Chris
tian doctrine of love, is a question
that still awaits an answer. Pope
John, who is a man with a heart
in its right place, has manifested
a willingness to face up to this
problem fairly and squarely. He
has removed offending passages,
such as “perifidous Jews,” from
the liturgy. But the removal of a
phrase from the liturgy does not
solve the basic problems of anti
semitism, a phenomenon which has
its root in the New Testament it
self.
Is there an attempt being made
on the part of the Ecumenical
Council to solve their “Jewjsh di
lemma” in a way that might prove
satisfactory to us Jews? And the
answer is yes.
One of the most influential
clerics of the Vatican, Cardinal
Augustus Bea, who prepared the
agenda for the twenty-first Ecu
menical Council in Rome, has de
cided that the Conference must
once and for all come to grips in
a positive manner with this age-
The Southern Israelite
old problem of the Christian at
titude toward Jews. Consequently,
he prepared an elaborate docu
ment which contains a number of
recommendations of how to allay
Jewish fear and suspicion of the
Catholic Church. Cardinal Bea
himself refuses to tliscuss the con-*
tent of his “Jewish paper” with
any outsider. However, Father
Gregory Baum, a Jewish apostate
originally from Beilin, Germany,
and who is at present professor of
theology of St. Michael’s univer
sity in Toronto, int.mated to a
Jewish correspondent that Cardinal
Bea’s document contains, among
others the following significant
point and recommendation.
The document states clearly that
pathological anti-semitism has its
root in the Church and Christian
ity, which necessarily created a
congenial atmosphere for savage
Jewish persecution with which the
entire Jewish history in the dia
spora has been replete. The doc
ument therefore recommends that
Catholic leadership must find a
way that in the future the Church
must not serve the interests of
anti-semitic elements.
A second point deals wdh the
Jewish responsibilitv for the cru
cifixion of Jesus. Cardinal Bea
cites numerous historical and theo
logical facts and social phenomena
to prove ithat it is false to accuse
the entire Jewish people foi the
murder of the "Nazarene.” “If
Jews did have a share in the mur
der of the ‘Son of God’,” he says,
'only individual .Tows were res
ponsible for it, but the Jewish peo
ple as a whole had nothing to do
with it.” He therefore suggests that
this age-old unfounded accusation •
against the Jewish people be re
vised by the Council
It is interesting that a German
Jesuit, Dr. Ludwig V. Hertling, in
the official organ ct the German
Jesuit, “Stimmender Zeit,” wrote
in the same vain. “Deicide,” Dr.
Hetling writes, “cannot be charged
against the Jewish people because
they had not recognized or ac
knowledged Jesus’ cl’.aracter as
Beihg God to begin with. It would
have been asking very much of a
Jew, reared in the spirit of the
Old Testament, in the most severe
monotheism, to understand that
Jesus meant by his affirmation of
being God’s son, as being one with
his Father, or how God had re
vealed himself within a simple
human being originating in Naz
areth, and whose parents were
known to all.”
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Another most pertinent voice re
garding this subject has come from
Cardinal Gerlier, Archbishop of
Lyon who is one of the highest
Catholic leaders in France. In his
preface to a book recently pub
lished by Father Jean Tula which
deals with the Jewish problem,
Cardinal Gerlier makes a strong
appeal to all Christians to free
themselves once and for a'l from
the anti-semitic disease and in
stead work for Jewish-Christian
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