Dialog chrześcijańsko-żydowski w Kościele katolickim. 50 lat po Soborze Watykańskim II

Abstract

Soon the year 2015 will witness the 50th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. The document marked a turning point in long-standing mutual Christian and Jewish relations and its importance is comparable to the “Copernican Revolution”. The article contains an extended version of a lecture prepared at a request of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (Gesellschaft für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit) based in Görlitz, Germany. The article first presents the historical conditions and significance of the document mentioned above, and goes on to illustrate the further development of Catholic-Judaistic and Christian-Jewish dialogue through successive official documents of the Catholic Church. A good opportunity to sum up the state of the dialogue was provided by the 40th anniversary of the above mentioned declaration. Everything that was said at that time still retains its significance and only needs to be complemented by a reference to the pontificate of Pope Francis. Undoubtedly, on the part of the Catholic Church the greatest contribution to the development of Catholic-Jewish relations came from the Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Pope John XXIII was responsible for a major reversal in reference to the Jews and paved a new way for in the dialogue with Judaism. The Nostra Aetate Declaration was passed during the pontificate of Paul VI. The pope personally interfered in the document drafting process several times and had a major contribution to the final shape and content. John Paul II’s pontificate marked a breakthrough both in Christian-Jewish relations and with reference to the Israeli nation and state. The gestures and events of that pontificate were not only groundbreaking and revolutionary, but also unique in the hitherto history of the Catholic Church. They include the first visit to a Rome synagogue on 13 April 1986; the prayer for the Jews at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount; the visit to Yad Vashem; and recognition of the state of Israel. Those acts were complemented by the teachings of John Paul II and his numerous meetings with representatives of Jewish communities. The teachings comprise a total of about 2,000 speeches and statements. John Paul II’s stand was greatly influenced by his personal relations with Jews before World War II, the experience of the Jewish extermination, and the proximity of concentration camps and annihilation during the period of Nazi Germany. The pope’s contribution to the development of Christian-Jewish relations had a milestone significance and cannot be overestimated. Throughout his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI continued and developed the work of John Paul II with enormous zest and dedication. He paid special attention to the Christian-Jewish and Catholic-Judaistic dialogue in both the doctrinal and institutional dimensions. Highly meaningful were various acts and words of Benedict XVI as a German pope including his speech at the Reichstag in Berlin; his visit and prayer in Auschwitz; and his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Like John Paul II, Benedict XVI survived the Nazi period and witnessed the Jewish extermination in the Third Reich territory. The article was originally addressed to a German audience. Therefore, its final section contains important information on mutual Polish-Jewish relations and the development of Catholic-Judaistic and Christian-Jewish dialogue in Poland. In light of its specific historical conditions, the information related to the dialogue is significant not only to the Poles and Jews, but to the Germans and others as well.