Today, the Vatican Press Office released a much awaited clarification on the new prayer for the Jews inserted into the 1962 Roman Missal. News stories and commentaries leading up to today’s release had anticipated something not in the final document. Expected was a repudiation of “proselytism,” the pejorative label put on evangelism nowadays. What was released instead was a reaffirmation that the Church has not reversed her stance against “contempt or discrimination against Jews.” Affirming that the Vatican II Declaration Nostra Aetate is still a guide for Vatican policy, the Holy See is “firmly repudiating any kind of anti-Semitism.”
This seems to me to be the flip side of Pope Benedict’s “affirmative orthodoxy.” The Roman Pontiff wishes to show respect, cooperation, and a desire to put aside unnecessary acrimony without suggesting — or even hinting — that seeking converts from Judaism is something to be repudiated.
Yesterday, Catholic World News quoted Rabbi David Rosen, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committe, saying that the statement would repudiate proselytism:
Rabbi Rosen, who said that he has seen a draft of the clarifying statement, said that reassurance on that point would repair any problems in Catholic-Jewish relations. It should be understood, he said, that the Good Friday prayer “certainly in no way compromises the Church’s total opposition to proselytizing.”
Today, in an interview with Catholic News Service, Rabbi Rosen called the statement “an important clarification.” He went on to speak as if the Church had set aside evangelism of Jewish people:
“I think it contains a very important implicit statement — which I would have been happier to see made explicit — that if one accepts (the Vatican II document) ‘Nostra Aetate,’ then they must demonstrate esteem for Judaism, which precludes proselytism,” Rabbi Rosen said.
Rabbi Rosen’s reading of the statement exemplifies what Scriputure scholars call eisegesis. Plainly speaking, what the rabbi “would have been happier to see made explicit” is not at all in the text. To say it is “implicit” begs the question. In Rabbi Rosen’s mind, it is implicit because Nostra Aetate’s respectful attitude towards Jewish people would rule out seeking their conversion. Notably, that logic and that conclusion are absent not only from the Secretary of State’s statement, but also from Nostra Aetate itself, which nowhere says that Jews ought not to be evangelized or need not convert.
While CNS did not quote Rabbi Rosen in any detail, the AJC spokesman did apparently acknowledge that something was missing from the release:
The rabbi said the April 4 statement does not contain all of the elements he had been told in early March would be included in a clarification from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state.
For, as that same Catholic News Service piece reports,
The Vatican’s April 4 statement did not mention missionary activity or attempts to convert Jews.
The great mandate has not been jettisoned. Indeed, it cannot be.
