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Inside Calendar 6 Local Columnists... 10-11 Sports 9 Entertainment....8 World & Nation...4-5 Feature 16 Youth 7 ?M n *£:: COURIER Diocese of Rochester Thursday, September 28,1989 50* 20 pages Improved relations, outlast dispute By Lee Strong Staff writer ROCHESTER — When Father Joseph Brennan studied in Israel in the 1950s, he discovered many of his Jewish classmates were afraid of him. The Rochester priest soon realized that those classmates feared him simply because he was a Catholic priest. All - too often, he learned, the priests they knew in Europe had cooperated with Nazi persecution of die Jewish people. And centuries before the Nazi era, the Catholic Church in Europe had established a history of discrimination. Thirty years later, Father Brennan, a member of Ro- chester's Commission on Christian/Jewish Relations, said he no longer sees Jews fearing priests or me Catholic Church. \I think in the United States and Europe, a large seg- ment of the Jewish population is ready to accept that me Catholic Church has modified its positions,'' he said. But as the recent conflict over a Carmelite convent at Auschwitz has shown, anxiety, misunderstanding and distrust still exist. Particularly troubling to Jewish leaders during the dis- pute were statements by Poland's primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp. On Aug. 26, he defended the presence of the con- vent at Auschwitz and suggested that Jewish people con- trol the media. An agreement reached by Jewish and Catholic leaders in 1987 stipulated that the convent would be moved by February of this year. M embers of the Jewish community regarded the cardinal's remarks as anti-Semitic, and Catholic leaders worldwide criticized the statements. Among those voicing criticism were U.S. Cardinals John O'Connor of New York and Bernard Law of Boston, and Archbishop Rem- bert Weakland of Milwaukee. Originally, theVatican had refused to become involved in the dispute, saying that it was a local affair. But on Sept. 19, the Vatican's Commission for Religious Re- lations with Judaism ordered the convent moved. \Before (the order), there was a feeling that things ha- ven't changed much in the last 45 years\ in terms of Je- wish/Catholic relations, observed Michael Schnittman, the commission's vice chairman. He speculated, however, that the the Vatican's interven- tion would help the Jewish community ' 'to realize that the pope is not turning a deaf ear to them.'!' Some members of the Jewish community had, in fact, begun to question Pope John Paul JI's attitude toward them. The Polish-born pope had visited the great synago- gue in Rome in 1986, and in 1987 promised to write a document on the Holocaust. Both actions spurred hopes for improvement in relations between the Jewish and Catholic communities. > On the other hand, Jewish leaders were troubled when, in 1987, the pope met with Austrian president Kurt Wald- heim, who has been linked to anti-Jewish activities during World War II, and in 1988 with Yasser Arafat, leader of me Palestinian Liberation Organization. T o Rabbi Judea Miller of Rochester's Temple B'rith Kodesh, however, such meetings were not a call for con- cern. \The pope can meet anyone he wants,\ he said. \Who are we to set his agenda?\ Father Brennan noted that the pope met with Arafat and Waldheim in his role as political leader of the Vatican, not as spiritual leader of the Catholic Church. \I don't think either of those diminish the level of cooperation between Catholics and Jews, either locally i or in the United States,\ Father Brennan said. j Relations between the Catholic and Jewish communities within the diocese have been positive for a number of years. Catholics Jiave participated not only in the inter- faith commission's activities, but also in a Je- wish/Christian dialogue group mat is beginning its third season of monthly discussions. \Jewish-Catholic relations are flourishing,\ acknowl- edged Marge Nurnberg, chairwomari of die commission and director of me diocesan Department of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. \I mink it is mainly because we have developed among us such trust, such openness, we can criticize witiiout being so hurtithat we cannot con- tinue a dialogue.\ In the United States, anti-Semitism simply has not been the problem that it has been in Europe, observed Eugene Fisher, an official of die National Conference on Camolic Bishops. f Fisher, associate director of Catholic/Jewish relations for me NCCB's Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreli- gious Affairs, noted mat Catholics and Jews arrived in me United States togedier as immigrants, and that mey faced many of the same problems and discrimination. Citing the predominance of Jewish and Catholic leaders in the labor movement earlier tiiis century, he said Catho- lic and Jewish immigrants worked together to resolve their common problems. \I diink mere's been an ability of American Catholics and American Jews to relate to one anouier,\ he said. Judea Miller experienced some discrimination when he was growing up, but the rabbi recalls that die major child- hood disputes in his neighborhood werenot between Jews and Catholics. Instead, conflicts arose among Irish and Italian children — widi Jewish children taking one side or me odier. \When I heard about pogroms (persecutions), it was always overseas,'' he said.' 'It wasn't here.'' A key event in Jewish/Camolic relations was me Sec- ond Vatican Council, Fisher said. In the 1965 document In Our Tithes, the council fathers repudiated the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death; reaffirmed the ongoing validity of the Jewish covenant with God; and ur- ged dialogue between die two faiths. ' 'Before,'' Fisher said,' 'mere had been a lot of relating on a social level. Vatican II allowed us to talk reli- giously.\ \The public view of Jews by Camolics changed be- cause of me council,\ acknowledged Larry Fine, execu- tive director of Rochester's Jewish Federation. \I think it allowed for dialogue on a lot of issues mat couldn't be tal- ked about before.\ Fine said Jewish leaders' reaction to die convent con- flict arose from two sources. The first source was Car- dinal Glemp's remarks. ^1 I mink in die Jewish community mere was some fear mat some long-standing anti-Semitism mat we had diought had gone had resurfaced,\ he said. But mose fears were calmed by Camolic leaders' strong opposition to me the cardinal's remarks as well as Vatican interven- tion in the dispute, he said. The second source of Jewish concern was the convent itself. Fisher noted mat me root of the'entire dispute is me Continued on page 13 '€ ****$P*** SB **^Ka*m •* % *fc. V: £ # :*&•• $* Wayne A. Holt/Catholic Courier 1
