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It is impossible that God set up two covenants in the world, one proclaiming that Jesus of Nazareth was His Messiah and another denying it.
On August 12, 2002, an ongoing dialogue between the delegates of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (USBCEIA) and the National Council of Synagogues publicly released a joint statement entitled Reflections on Covenant and Mission. It was placed on the USCCB web site, which gave the impression that it had been approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In fact, it had not been approved by the bishops. It had not been approved even by the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. It was put up on the site by some delegates from the USBCEIA. Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, the Catholic co-chairman of the dialogue group, explained on August 16 that the document was unofficial and was published with the purpose of encouraging serious reflection on the issues in both the Catholic and Jewish communities. It remained on the USCCB web site for about two months and was then quietly withdrawn. Its chief protagonists, Cardinal Walter Kasper and Dr. Eugene Fisher, no longer speak publicly about it. But many Jewish and Catholic theological liberals continue to promote it.
However, the theological issue of whether Jews live in a separate saving covenant, the heart of the controversy, belongs not to Cardinal Kasper’s pontifical commission but to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Reflections on Covenant and Mission stated, “A deepening Catholic appreciation of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, together with a recognition of a divinely-given mission to Jews to witness to God’s faithful love, lead to the conclusion that campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church.”
Reflections was correct in saying that campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer acceptable to the Church. Holy Mother Church’s emerging prudential judgment is that evangelizing Jews is best done quietly by the testimony of life. Catholics understand Judaism is an earlier form of God’s true revelation to man, and that Catholic faith is the fulfillment and completion of Judaism. However, the need to evangelize Jews in some way remains with us.
Certainly the most important response was written by Cardinal Avery Dulles, called “Covenant and Mission,” published on October 21, 2002 in the Jesuit weekly magazine America. Cardinal Dulles cited Reflections understanding of evangelization:
Catholics participating in interreligious dialogue, a mutually enriching sharing of gifts devoid of any intention whatsoever to invite the dialogue partner to baptism, are nonetheless witnessing to their own faith in the kingdom of God embodied in Christ. This is a form of evangelization, a way of engaging in the Church’s mission.
Cardinal Dulles provided a devastating response:
This view of evangelization is difficult to reconcile with the teaching of recent popes. Paul VI declared in his 1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi that “there is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the Kingdom, and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, are not proclaimed” (No. 22). He added: “Evangelization will also always contain—as the foundation, center, and at the same time summit of its dynamism—a clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God’s grace and mercy” (No. 27). John Paul II quotes these words approvingly in his 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio (No. 44). In Ecclesia in America, an apostolic exhortation published in 1999 after the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops, the pope, referring again to Paul VI, writes: “The vital core of the new evangelization must be a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ” (No. 66). Covenant and Mission presents a concept of evangelization in which this vital core is dispensable. Unlike the popes, it seems to say that Christians can evangelize without pronouncing the name of Jesus.
Cardinal Dulles also addressed the term mission.
A second question concerns mission. Does the church have a mission to the Jews? The Catholic reflections proffer a negative answer. They quote Cardinal Kasper as saying, “The term mission, in its proper sense, refers to conversion from false gods and idols to the true and one God” and therefore does not extend to Jews, who already believe in the one true God.
And again Cardinal Dulles responded:
“Mission” and cognate terms in the New Testament and in traditional Catholic usage extend both to the Jews and to the Gentiles, not just the latter, although differences are of course recognized between the two groups (Acts 3:26; Gal. 2:8 and elsewhere). Even if, with Cardinal Kasper, one were to limit “mission” to the apostolate to the Gentiles, the church would not be absolved of her God-given responsibility to proclaim Christ to all the world. Peter on Pentecost Sunday declared that the whole house of Israel should know for certain that Jesus is Lord and Messiah and that every one of his hearers should be baptized in Jesus’ name (Acts 2:38). Paul spent much of his ministry proclaiming the Gospel to Jews throughout the diaspora. Distressed by their incredulity, he was prepared to wish himself accursed for the sake of their conversion (Rom. 9:3).
The Association of Hebrew Catholics responded with a symposium titled, A Hebrew Catholic Response: Oy Vey. I wrote an article for Homiletic & Pastoral Review titled, Reflections on Covenant and Mission: A Response.
Overall, when we compare the statements by recent popes with the statement of a few delegates without authority, there can be no question that the Church understands that it has a mission to the people Israel.
The theological assertion that Jews live in a separate saving covenant may be swiftly demolished.
Jesus, during His entire public ministry, evangelized only Jews. Mt 10:5 “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Mt 15:24 “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit’s miracle highlighting the universality of the Catholic Church was an evangelization of Jews. Acts 2:5 “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” Acts 4:8f “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them … be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth … there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1226, states: “The apostles and their collaborators offer Baptism to anyone who believed in Jesus: Jews, the God-fearing, pagans.”
Jesus said, Jn 3:5 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” He was speaking to Nicodemus, a devout Jew and member of the Sanhedrin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1257, says, “The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are ‘reborn of water and the Spirit.’ It adds, at 1260, “Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.”
Vatican II’s Ad Gentes, the Decree of the Missionary Activity of the Church, begins, “Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them a universal sacrament of salvation, the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mark 16:16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men.”
Pope Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, December 8, 1975, § 14, says: “We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church … Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity.” The Church exists to evangelize. St. Paul told us, 1 Cor 9:16 “Preaching the Gospel is not a reason for me to boast; it is a necessity laid on me: woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!”
The delegates’ statement is that targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity is no longer theologically acceptable. Let us review some of its arguments.
| Delegates from the Bishops’ Committee |
Marty Barrack’s Response |
| Knowledge of the history of Jewish life in
Christendom also causes such biblical texts as Acts 5:33-39 to be read with
new eyes. In that passage the Pharisee Gamaliel declares that only undertakings
of divine origin can endure. If this New Testament principle is considered
by Christians today to be valid for Christianity, then it must logically
also hold for post-biblical Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism, which developed after
the destruction of the Temple, must also be “of God.” |
The argument that a religious tradition’s endurance is evidence of its authenticity is fallacious. Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism began 500 years before Christ and still endure. Islam began 600 years after Christ. By the Committee’s logic, the three Eastern religious traditions are more authentic than Christianity, which would be slightly more authentic than Islam. |
| Catholics participating in interreligious dialogue, a mutually enriching sharing of gifts devoid of any intention whatsoever to invite the dialogue partner to baptism, are nonetheless witnessing to their own faith in the kingdom of God embodied in Christ. This is a form of evangelization, a way of engaging in the Church’s mission. | The argument that an activity devoid of intention to invite the dialogue partner to baptism is evangelization is inconsistent with Church teaching. Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi, December 8, 1975, 22 says: “There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., p. 877 defines evangelization as “The proclamation of Christ and his Gospel (Greek: evangelion) by word and the testimony of life, in fulfillment of Christ’s command.” The Catechism § 905 states: “Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life. For lay people, this evangelization acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world. This witness of life, however, is not the sole element in the apostolate; the true apostle is on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers or to the faithful.” Dominus Iesus 2 states: “For that reason, Saint Paul’s words are now more relevant than ever: ’Preaching the Gospel is not a reason for me to boast; it is a necessity laid on me: woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!’ (1 Cor 9:16). This explains the Magisterium’s particular attention to giving reasons for and supporting the evangelizing mission of the Church, above all in connection with the religious traditions of the world.” |
In the wake of Nostra
Aetate, there has been a deepening Catholic appreciation of many
aspects of our unique spiritual linkage with Jews. Specifically, the Catholic
Church has come to recognize that its mission of preparing for the coming
of the kingdom of God is one that is shared with the Jewish people, even
if Jews do not conceive of this task christologically as the Church does.
Thus, the 1985 Vatican Notes
observed:
|
Defining our shared mission as accomplishing the objectives of Catholic social teaching, which fulfills God’s commands to love our neighbor Lev 19:18, Jn 15:12 is appropriate within that boundary, but excludes the most important part. The Jewish people share in the Church’s preparation for the coming of the kingdom of God specifically through their recognition of the Messiah. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 674, says:
Sts. Peter and Paul appear to be saying that the mission of preparing for the coming of the kingdom of God depends on the conversion of the Jews, and that the hardening that has come upon part of Israel is preventing the glorious Messiah’s coming. |
| Ought Christians to invite Jews to baptism? This is a complex question not only in terms of Christian theological self-definition, but also because of the history of Christians forcibly baptizing Jews. |
Christian theological self-definition finds its origin in Christ’s commands: Mt 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” and Acts 1:8 “You shall be my witnesses in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” It finds its expression today in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at § 848, “The Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men.” The Bishops Committee here suggests that because some Catholics forcibly baptized Jews in the past, Catholics should not invite Jews to Baptism today. This argument is unfamiliar to Catholic scholars who are faithful to the Magisterium, and therefore not part of Christ’s public revelation. |
| Cardinal Walter Kasper ... showed why such initiatives are not appropriately directed at Jews:
|
The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses mission at § 849-856. § 849 begins by describing the Church as the “universal sacrament of salvation.” A reading of this entire section indicates that the Church’s mission is the proclamation of the complete deposit of faith. Cardinal Kasper’s narrow definition of mission is therefore a private opinion. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, not the Pontifical Commission for the Religious Relations with the Jews, speaks for the Vatican on such issues as the Church’s mission. Protestants proclaim “the true and one God” as revealed by Christ and vouchsafed through the Gospels as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jews, by denying Jesus as the Son of God, are not as close to the truth as Protestants. If Cardinal Kasper supports evangelizing Protestants, he cannot validly argue that Jews should be exempt from evangelization. |
| Nonetheless, the Church does perceive that the Jewish people’s mission ad gentes “to the nations) continues. This is a mission that the Church also pursues in her own way according to her understanding of covenant. The command of the Resurrected Jesus in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples “of all nations” “Greek = ethne, the cognate of the Hebrew = goyim; i.e., the nations other than Israel) means that the Church must bear witness in the world to the Good News of Christ so as to prepare the world for the fullness of the kingdom of God. However, this evangelizing task no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history. | Matthew 28:19 does use the Greek ethne, representing the Hebrew word goyim, but the scholarly translators always render it “all nations,” never “all non-Jews.” There is a reason for this consensus among Catholic scholars. The New Testament often uses ethne for both Jews and pagans. 1 Pet 2:12 “Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles.” (ethenesin) St. Peter here refers to non-Christians. He is addressing the city-churches composed of both Jews and non-Jews in five separate provinces of the Roman Empire, 1 Pet 1:1 speaking directly to the presbyters 1 Pet 5:1 appointed by Paul and Barnabas. Acts 14:23 So the early Christians used Gentile to mean any non-Christian. For instance, Acts 2:5 “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, (ethnous) devout men from every nation under heaven.” If there is any question, it can be resolved by comparing the two commands that Jesus gave before ascending to the Father. Mt 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” is the same as Acts 1:8 “You shall be my witnesses in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” Both commands were given by the Risen Christ shortly before His ascension and both are obviously identical in their reference to all men. It can be further resolved by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1257, “The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.” The Committee’s statement, “This evangelizing task no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history,” is new doctrine. The phrase “no longer” indicates that it has no origins in the public revelation of Jesus Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 66 states: “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” |
| Thus, while the Catholic Church regards the
saving act of Christ as central to the process of human salvation for all,
it also acknowledges that Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God.
The Catholic Church must always evangelize and will always witness to its
faith in the presence of God’s kingdom in Jesus Christ to Jews and
to all other people. In so doing, the Catholic Church respects fully the
principles of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, so that sincere
individual converts from any tradition or people, including the Jewish people,
will be welcomed and accepted. |
This paragraph, perhaps more than any other, illustrates the confusion inherent in Reflections on Covenant and Mission. Let us examine the first two sentences. Thus, while the Catholic Church regards the saving act of Christ as central to the process of human salvation for all, it also acknowledges that Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God. This sentence suggests that Jews already have a separate arrangement with God and therefore that Catholics need not evangelize them. The Catholic Church must always evangelize and will always witness to its faith in the presence of God’s kingdom in Jesus Christ to Jews and to all other people. This sentence, particularly “must always evangelize,” suggests that Catholic should evangelize Jews. |
Finally, Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church was published by the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
Reflections on Covenant and Mission quoted from the 1985 Notes, § 11,
Attentive to the same God who has spoken, hanging on the same Word, we have to witness to one same memory and one common hope in Him who is the master of history. We must also accept our responsibility to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah by working together for social justice, respect for the rights of persons and nations and for social and international reconciliation. To this we are driven, Jews and Christians, by the command to love our neighbor, by a common hope for the Kingdom of God and by the great heritage of the Prophets.
It did not quote from the same document, § 7
Jesus affirms that there shall be ‘one flock and one shepherd’ (Jn. 10:16). The Church and Judaism cannot, then, be seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to Christ as the Redeemer for all.
Copyright © 1999-2008 Martin K Barrack. All rights reserved.