The Conference itself-from Castel Gandolfo Day One

Thoughts from Castel Gondalfo
What is so interesting to me here is this: We are here to develop or lead inter religious dialogue. Yet, last night, after a one hour discussion, we could not agree upon an inTRAreligious way to pray. I was trying to pose the question, as a community of Jews here (and that already contains and assumption, that when Jews come together identifying as Jews that we are A community) is our priority to be a community or is the priority to have our own individual needs for prayer met?

We have had a session on the history of Jewish/Catholic relations and then a session on the history and theological meaning/impact of Vatican II/Nostra Aetate. First of all, these two sessions are so different from each faiths point of view. This is so fascinating. One person representing IJCIC (International Jewish-Catholic Interfaith Counsil) who is the Jewish host of the conference, claimed the importance of their organization and how it is a representative voice. I have never heard of it before now!! And I think of myself as being organizationally savvy. One participant here tried to point out how everyone one of us represents a different aspect of Judaism and we do not have shared theology. Another participant disagreed saying there are certain things we all agree on like God is one and the power of Shabbat. Yet, I would disagree with that!! I do not think we all (Jews) agree with that conception. I am uncomfortable saying this is what all Jews believe...

The conversation continued but no one was mentioning the recent change which Pope Benedict made to the Good Friday Prayer (changing the Latin to pray for the Jewish people to be enlightened to find our way to Jesus Christ our savior). So I asked. Father Hoffman, the representative from the Vatican, gave a political answer about how it was misunderstood. I asked for someone not from the Vatican to answer (it did not really happen) our time was up and Father Hoffman came over to clarify more. Many others gathered around.

He explained that the Pope made this change to rectify an internal schism. Fr. Hoffman feels this pope is committed to creating Catholic unity so that greater conversation can be possible. Dominus Jesus was an internal text created by the current Pope (before he was Pope) basically reinforcing "On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church" (this is the subtitle of the document according to wikipedia) was an internal conversation clarifying or trying to clarify some of the theological questions raised by Vatican II. Again, he said that the Pope was trying to achieve internal harmony.

Someone else offered that basically, the belief is that any of us can achieve salvation. For Catholics, salvation is only through Jesus even if one does not know it is through Jesus (I may not know Jesus is saving me, but Jesus is behind my salvation if I find salvation).

Ok, so this does not sound so bad. But my follow up question is, what does it mean for Joe Christian on the ground? Does he or she know that this is an internal memo? It sounds to me like a call to pity and judge the Jewish people as wrong...a call to save the Jews and pray for our redemption. It feels dismissive, judgmental, and very...holier than thou...

Little response...then off to lunch. There, one person told me that this is what it looks like-Pope Benedict wants to role back this aspect of Vatican II. He does not want to touch the pieces which support anti Semitism or Deicide (this is good). But he does not believe that anyone can be saved without Christ. These events feel dangerous to me...

Then, in my room, my roommate told me that the Pope is NOT the whole church, but one voice among many. She does not believe that this means very much on the ground for most Catholics.

But I am still troubled....the Pope's words and recent actions seems to open the door and give permission for actions which are problematic.

I do not think this is good for the Jews.

The other thing my roommate said was, she thinks it is unfortunate that the Pope is using the Jews and this prayer to find a common enemy for these different factions within Catholicism to unite around