Notes of Cardinal Kasper's Words to Us

Thursday morning, several people came to speak with us including Cardinal Kasper who is the representative to the Holy See on Jewish-Catholic relations. He is Father Hoffman's boss. His whole office was recently demoted under the new Pope; a sign to many that J-C relations just are no that important to Pope Benedict.

What follows are my notes on what he had to say to our group. He was a charming and dynamic speaker and I enjoyed listening to him.

Cardinal Kasper (President of the commission of Catholic relations with the Jews) and Emmaus, the president of the Focolare Movement (5 million people...that's a big job)
Jay begins with the ask-a seat at the table
Thanks and critique

Cardinal Kasper-we need you to take the torch with new and fresh ideas. It is important for Jews and Christians to unite and work together in this gloablized world. There are so many difficult and dangerous things and conflicts. All people especially Jews and Christians must work together through our common interest for a better world which is your world. We do not need documents. We need friendship, personal meetings, and trust! We need trust. We need to know eachoither, to look at his face...this makes a difference in being able to see them as a human being. Yes we are different, there are differences, God created us this way...but it is beautiful to learn from each other, enjoy each other, look at our interests and make a difference in the world. So we need you!

The last pope new Jewish people and grew up with Jewish people and played football together. He was different...he (the Pope) has a much more important message in making peace in the wworld. It is not through war and armies, but through making peace in the hearts of people. This is the message of the pope who touched the hearts of people...yes, there is a lot of fear and suffering on both sides [he spoke of the Israel-Palestinian situation, but perhaps he means about all issues] The speech he gave at Yad V'shem was an important speech, it was not political, but a spiritual message. Yad V'sham, to know or remember the names...everybody has a name which says something about the dignity and importance of each person which is different from each other person. It never forgets anyone. The names we forget, but God does not forget. The name is written on the head of everyone. This is the most important thing you can say about those in the Shoah...we never forget the names. You caan never erase the dignity of a person...the name is not gone for forever...a message Jews and Christians together.

The fruits of this message are not seen immediately. There is more work to do and it takes time...we had a meeting in Budapest...any conference with Jewish people, the first half hour is a dispute amongst each other. There are all these different arguments but there is something right in every argument. The spirit is there...

We must go one even with our arguments. We have the ten commandments together. If everyone could go on with these 10 commandments together...we could go one very differently. We have not just this, but also hope. Jews and Christians, we have the language of hope. There is a short supply of hope and it is the most important thing that hope is possible. Only out of hope can we do anything. There is a lot of resignation and people give up their ideals...but now we have hope that truth, justice, love, mercy have the last word.