Jews, Catholics Agree to Fight Anti-Semitism

Reuters ^ | 1-21-04 | Grant McCool

[SJackson]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some of the world's leading cardinals and rabbis vowed on Tuesday to stand up to a rise of anti-Semitism in Europe at what participants called the highest level talks in the troubled history of Catholics and Jews.

A dozen cardinals, six chief rabbis and a contingent of Europeans, Americans and Israelis said they identified ways to boost religious understanding just days after the pope had a ceremonial meeting with Israel's two chief rabbis in Rome.

"The participants expressed consternation at continuing expressions of hatred in the world, and noted with concern the recent rise of anti-Semitic manifestations," the World Symposium of Catholic Cardinals and Jewish leaders said in a statement at the end of the two-day meeting in New York.

The rare gathering was sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, which wants to bring Jews and Christians closer, building on ties forged over 25 years by Pope John Paul II.

Recent polls have recorded an increase in anti-Semitism in Europe and a disputed European Union study linked anti-Semitism to a surge of violence in the Middle East.

"The main message is a call to the world for a general religious peace," said Patric Desboise, a French priest and spokesman for the Catholic delegation who said the level of the talks was unprecedented.

He said there were no immediate plans to bring Muslim leaders into the Jewish-Catholic discussion of world peace.

"With Islam nothing has been clearly decided, but it is a call to them," Desboise said after attending a memorial service on Tuesday at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center, where nearly 2,800 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks by Islamic militants.

Relations between the Jewish state and the Vatican were cold for decades until Pope John Paul's pontificate. In 2000, he visited Jerusalem and prayed at the Wailing Wall, Judaism's holiest site.

"This was probably a dialogue between Catholic and Jew at the highest level ever undertaken," said WJC executive vice president Elan Steinberg. "The meetings with the pope have been ceremonial while this was a meeting of substance in which the grand scheme of issues were discussed in the most candid way."

The group decided to meet again on different continents in coming years and promised to encourage dialogue among local Jewish and Catholic communities.

Among the Catholic leaders who attended the symposium were cardinals Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris, France, George Marie Cottier of Rome, Alexandre Do Nascimento of Luanda, Angola, and Ivan Dias of Bombay, India. Some of the chief rabbis who met them were Rabbi Henry Sobel of Brazil, Rabbi Jacob Bleieh of Ukraine and Rabbi Pinchus Goldschmidt of Moscow.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Cicero]

Good. In the face of the new leftist bigotry, Jews and Catholics are natural allies, just as American Catholics and Evangelicals have proven to be natural allies in the face of the abortion industry.

Pope JP II has been firmly dedicated to repair historical bad relations between Catholics in Jews since he was a young man, and certainly seems he became Pope.

That's one of the underlying reasons for the controversy over Pope Pius X and the Nazis. Left-wing ideologues want to fan bad relations between Jews and Catholics to prevent these natural allies from coming together against the forces of left-wing anti-religious bigotry.

It won't be easy, because there have been problems in the past. But it's very much in the interests of both Catholics and Jews to follow through on this.

[birg]

The EU should forge closer ties with Israel. I believe

Poland is helping in that regard.