Catholics and Jews at it again

It seems relations between Catholics and Jews will never settle down. At least not with some sort of major theological change. When they say Christ is the answer, it belittles the Jews (actually, every other faith on the  entire planet, but they only seem to care about the Jews). But, when they say, as they did in 2002, that it wasn’t acceptable to to target Jews for conversion, it confuses their own congregation.

From the article:

In an attempt to clarify their own position, the bishops said the church is “always giving witness to the following of Christ, to which all are implicitly invited.” The bishops also said the “fulfillment of the covenant” God established with Israel “is found only in Jesus Christ.”

In a letter released Thursday (Aug. 20), a coalition of Jewish groups said they may have to withdraw from ongoing interfaith dialogue if there is an “explicit or implicit” understanding that Jews must become Christians.

“A declaration of this sort is antithetical to the very essence of Jewish-Christian dialogue as we have understood it in the post-Vatican II era,” said the letter from Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis, as well as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

The letter — the first collective Jewish response to the bishops’ June statement — seemed to indicate particular angst over the idea that the Jewish covenant with God is no longer valid.

Clarification of their stance isn’t going to work. They just have to face that there is no easy way out. A belief that there is only one path to salvation is inherently in opposition to any concept of enmity. If they truly believed they had the way, they must also believe that all other ways are wrong. If they instruct their followers to let others be, that means they would be letting them face eternal damnation.

It does seem that it’s always the Jews that are defending themselves over Catholic/Christian statements and not the other way around. Perhaps the Jews should level the playing field and issue statements that Jesus was a false prophet. That would be fun to watch from the sidelines.