r 1 d

Pope And America

Jewish outreach on pope's agenda;
upset remains over conversion prayer.

Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

W

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A38

April 17 = 2008

ISRAEL

forever.

hen news broke last year
that Pope Benedict XVI
was reviving an ancient
prayer for the conversion of the Jews,
the reaction in
Jewish circles was
outrage tempered by
confusion.
Communal lead-
ers warned that the
move would deal
a serious blow to
Pope Benedict the four decades of
progress in Jewish-
Catholic relations following Nostra
Aetate — the landmark document
that absolved the Jews of collective
guilt for the killing of Jesus — unless
the pope clarified how the prayer
meshed with Catholic doctrine.
Last week, as the pope was prepar-
ing to visit the United States, that
clarification finally arrived — sort of.
In a statement issued through the
Vatican secretary of state, the pope
assured that the prayer in the Latin, or
Tridentine, Mass "in no way intends
to indicate a change in the Catholic
Church's regard for the Jews." He also
reaffirmed that Nostra Aetate "pres-
ents the fundamental principles" guid-
ing Catholic relations with the Jewish
people.
But as several Jewish organizations
were quick to note, the document
failed to expressly reject proselytizing
— the precise issue that had generat-
ed so much unease. Nor did it explain
how the normally doctrinaire pontiff
reconciled Nostra Aetate's ecumenical
spirit with a prayer for Jewish salva-
tion.
It is against this backdrop that
Pope Benedict will arrive for a six-day
visit to the United States this week
— a visit that not only will feature the
official meetings and stadium appear-
ances typical of papal visits, but also
an unprecedented outreach effort to
the American Jewish community.
On April 18, the day before Passover,
the pope will make his first visit to an

American synagogue, where he will
offer holiday greetings at the Park East
Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East
Side.
The day before, at the John Paul
II Cultural Center in Washington,
he will address leaders of five faiths
— Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu
and Jain — and will greet 10 interre-
ligious leaders, including three rabbis.
Afterward he will hold a separate audi-
ence with American Jewish leaders.

Overriding Issue
But the Latin Mass issue threatens
to cast a long shadow over the visit,
whose theme is "Christ, Our Hope'
Several Jewish organizations, includ-
ing the Anti-Defamation League,
issued statements in the past week
with harsh appraisals of the papal
clarification.
"While they say it does not change
Nostra Aetate, the statement does not
go far enough to allay concerns about
how the message of this prayer will
be understood by the people in the
pews," the ADL said in a statement.
"The Latin prayer is still out there,
and stands by itself, and unless this
statement will be read along with the
prayer, it will not repair or mitigate
the impact of the words of the prayer
itself, with its call for Jews to recognize
Jesus as the savior of all men and its
hope that 'all Israel will be saved:"
Some groups and observers noted
that the German-born pope was well
aware of Jewish expectations and
chose not to meet them.
"The Vatican has pointedly refused
to negate that implication" that
the prayer for the Jews implies an
operative call to proselytize, said
Rabbi David Berger, an Orthodox
representative on the International
Jewish Committee on Interreligious
Consultations, or IJCIC, the Vatican's
official Jewish dialogue partner. Berger
emphasized that he was speaking in a
personal capacity.
"The pope was aware that there
were sentiments to explicitly limit
this to the End of Days, and the state-
ment does not express this sentiment:'
Berger said. "So I think there was a
decision not to say so."

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