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ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
A
Jewish patient at
Beaumont Hospital
recently confronted
Alex Brunet when he
overheard the monsignor
was from Shrine of the Little
Flower:
"Do you know its history?"
the patient angrily asked,
referring to the anti-
Semitism in the 1930s and
'40s of the Shrine's Father
Charles Coughlin.
"Do you know its history
since that time?" responded
Msgr. Brunet.
Msgr. Brunet, ecumenical
officer for the Archdiocese of
Detroit for the last 20 years,
told this story to an audience
of Christians and Jews last
week at a lunch and learn
sponsored by B'nai B'rith,
the Michigan Board of
Rabbis and the Midrasha
College of Jewish Studies.
He used the point to il-
lustrate that much has
changed in Jewish-Christian
relations since the Vatican
II conference issued its
Nostra Aetate document in
1964. But, he said, Jews
must also lower their guard.
"In the Catholic Church,
we don't have a stellar histo-
ry, ever since the time when
the • Church broke from the
synagogue. And you can't
understand the early history
unless you understand that
Jesus was Jewish," Msgr.
Brunet said. "As more non-
Jews became believers in
Christ, the scales turned and
there were more divisions"
between Jews and Chris-
tians.
Nostra Aetate, he said, has
forced the Church to purge
cliches and stereotypes de-
rived from past centuries of
hatred. As the wedge widen-
ed so did animosities, and
terms like "userer,"
"bankers of the world" and
"scapegoat" were used by
the Church to describe Jews.
He discussed the
Oberammergau (Germany)
Passion Play that blames
Jews for the death (passion)
of Jesus. "Nostra Aetate
reminds us that this is a
historical error," Msgr.
Brunet said. "It was the
Romans, not the Jews, who
killed Jesus."
Msgr. Brunet said the
cliches still exist, but the
Church is fighting them. He
uses terms like Hebrew and
Christian Scriptures, rather
than Old Testament and
New Testament. He said, "It
Msgr. Brunet
Seeking understanding.
is not old and new, but one
process of reconciliation.
One set of Scriptures led to
the other; one doesn't cancel
the other."
He reminded the audience
of the Jewish roots of Jesus
and Christianity. "When
Jesus talks about Scripture, -
he's talking about Torah
like any good rabbi would
do." He said Jesus inter-
preted the law in this
manner for his followers, but
the debates over interpreta-
tion were magnified by the
early Church "and it got out
of hand."
The monsignor said Chris-
tians must strive to acquire
He discussed
Jesus' Jewish
roots. "When
Jesus talks about
Scripture, he's
talking about
Torah."
better knowledge of Jewish
tradition to.,help them
underStaild their
background. And Jews, he
said, must overcome the past
history of Christian
animosity and conver-
sionary efforts to work
together for a better world.
"Faith is not faith unless
you live it," he said.
"Relations between Jews
and Catholics will not im-
prove unless you do every-
thing you can to achieve it."
As part of that effort,
Msgr. Brunet is hosting a
tour of the Shrine on Mon-
day as a fund-raiser for the
Ecumenical Institute for
Jewish Christian Studies.
❑