|
International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee
19th Meeting Cape Town, South Africa
November 4-7 2006
For many years Westerners referred to Africa as the Dark Continent. It was a mysterious, fascinating and primeval place that had been discovered by men in ships with sails. At the end of this forbidding land mass was Cape Town. Now, November 4-7, 2006, early in the 21 st century, Cape Town was the site of an extraordinary gathering of Catholic and Jewish leaders seeking to shed light on their differences as well as their shared values.
In 1965 the Second Vatican Council issued an extraordinary Declaration, Nostra Aetate -In Our Time which emphasized the religious bond and spiritual legacy shared by Jews and the Church. Where previously there had been mainly disputations between Jews and Catholics, Nostra Aetate opened a window for dialogue. During his papacy Pope John Paul II repeatedly referred to Jews as “the people of God of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God”. Nostra Aetate called for Catholics and Jews to collaborate in “biblical and theological enquiry … and friendly discussions.”
Within a few years of the publication of Nostra Aetate the Vatican created a Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. The international Jewish community created the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC). An International Liaison Committee (ILC) composed of representatives of each of these committees was subsequently formed to work on dialogue programs between the Catholic Church and the international Jewish community.
The congregational arms and the rabbinic associations of the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements, the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, the Anti Defamation League, B’nai Brith International, the Israel Jewish Council for Interrelgious Relations and the World Jewish Congress are all members of IJCIC. Rabbi David Rosen, Director of Interreligious Affairs for American Jewish Committee, Rabbi Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress and Cardinal Walter Kasper, chair of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews currently serve as co-chairs of the ILC.
Until the 18 th meeting of the ILC, held in Buenos Aires in 2004, all meetings were held in the United States or Europe or Israel. The Buenos Aires meeting, the first in the Southern hemisphere added a new program item to what had been the agenda pattern for over 30 years.
The theme for the Buenos Aires meeting was “Tzedeq and Tzedaqah”/ “Justice and Charity”. In an attempt to deal with the dire economic conditions which had prevailed in Argentina for a number of years some social service facilities had been jointly organized, run and maintained by the local Catholic and Jewish communities. The delegates to the ILC meeting visited two of the facilities.
The Cape Town meeting was the 3 rd ILC meeting I attended. The ILC is now over 40 years old. It is not just academic papers and academic responses. Discussion within the formal meeting schedule as well as during the unstructured time is less formal, more frank. During the Buenos Aires meeting I was emboldened to mention to the chairmen that I was usually the only woman present. I said that I believed that more women delegates would enrich our conversations and could add to our understanding of each other.
I was very pleased to see that for this 19 th meeting of the ILC both the Catholics chair and Jewish chairs had arranged for women to be observers throughout the program.
The 19 th ILC meeting theme was “Dignifying the Divine Image: Jewish and Catholic perspectives on health care” with special reference to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The local Catholic and Jewish communities each hosted an evening program during which there were opportunities to meet and talk with local religious and community leaders.
On Saturday night there was a gala opening program and dinner hosted by Her Worship the Mayor of Cape Town., Helen Zille. The Muslim Premier of the Western Cape (akin to a state governor), Mr. Ebrahim Rasool, gave a remarkable presentation without notes. A quote from his welcome letter to all the delegates bears reading. “A relationship of dialogue between Jews, Christians – and I add Muslims as sisters and brothers in the Abrahamic inheritance and monotheism – is crucial to achieving any significant peace and justice in the concerns we face as a global community, including the distress and travails of: poverty, injustice, the environment, resource depletion, inequality, HIV AIDS, fundamentalism, prejudice, violence and commercialization.”
The Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein and the President of the South African Catholic Bishop’s Conference, Cardinal Wilfred Fox Napier and Mrs. Moonyeen Castle, the chair of the Cape Council of the Jewish Board of Deputies of South Africa also made presentations. Between each speaker there was a short musical presentation. A chorus of students from the Herzylia Day School and from a local Catholic parochial school performed separately as well as all together. The fast paced program was followed by an extraordinary lavish reception. A good time was had by all. Paddy Meskin of Durban, a past president of the South African Progressive Sisterhoods was one of the Jewish observers. A number of nuns who headed South African health care facilities were also observers.
Following the Buenos Aires example, visits to facilities that served people of all races and religions were visited. Jewish and Catholic health care institutions largely devoted to HIV/AIDS treatment, care and education were part of the program. The children’s hospital that we visited was a very cheerful institution despite the tragic circumstances of many of the children. One staff member was obviously a gardener extraordinaire. Well tended beautiful plants everywhere. Another staff member had used unusual creativity in decorating the walls and corridors of the buildings. You knew you were in a facility where many children lived. But the sense that it was a medical facility was less obvious.
The children were accustomed to visitors and greeted us with big smiles. Cardinal Kasper was in my group. A small boy, about 4 years old, had an especially winsome smile. Cardinal Kasper returned his smile, reached out his arms to the child and picked him up. The child cuddled in his arms and proceeded in this way with us through the “tour”. Each of the visitors followed the Cardinal’s example and picked up a child. It was not pathos that moved us but joy. Joy that came with the recognition that it is possible to add pleasure to children’s lives even in painful and sad circumstances
Please read the Joint Declaration of the delegates. Also available is the program schedule. I think you will find it informative. Finally there are two papers:
Judith Hertz Co-chair Commission on Interreligious Affairs of Reform Judaism.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Union for Reform Judaism
|
|
North American Federation of Temple Brotherhoods |
|
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion |
|
Central Conference of
American Rabbis
|
|
Women of Reform Judaism |
|
