Jewish boycott of German Catholic Church Congress





Cathcon translation of
Karfreitagsgebet für Juden-Bekehrung überschattet Katholikentag:
Good Friday Prayer for the Conversion of Jews overshadows German Catholic Church Congress.

The new Catholic Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews has now affected the upcoming German Catholic Church Congress

The representative of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Germany, Walter Homolka,

has cancelled his participation in the Christian meeting in Osnabrück in May. The Catholic prayer for “enlightenment of the Jews", after the guilt of the Catholic Church "in the history of their relationship with the Jews" and most recently in the time of National Socialism, is "totally inappropriate" and "should be rejected in the strongest terms," he said on Monday in Potsdam.

The World Union with 1.6 million members in 46 countries is the world's largest Jewish religious organization. The liberal rabbi, at the same time, criticised the announcement by the Episcopal Conference at its spring meeting restricting possibilities for further multi-religious celebrations. "The relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community by these hostile acts stand at a testing time and at the lowest point for decades," said Homolka, who directs in Potsdam, the Abraham Geiger College, the only German training center for rabbis .

In this climate, the maintenance of hospitality is no longer possible, according to Homolka. Catholic-Jewish community celebrations and the common reading of the Christian New Testament establish mutual confidence, "Which as far as I am concerned, cannot be felt anymore." Included in the programme of the 97th German Catholic Congress are included a so-called "Centre for Christian-Jewish Dialogue" and a "Centre of Islamic-Christian Dialogue".

Pope Benedict XVI has in the past year again permitted the controversial Latin Tridentine Mass. The associated Good Friday intercession "for the Jews", which, inter alia, speaks of the "blindness" of the Jews was issued in a changed form in February. The impact of the text was defused, but still calls for "enlightenment" and "salvation" of the Jews by the Christian God. The Italian Rabbinical Assembly subsequently cancelled talks with the Catholic Church. The Good Friday prayer in the new form is to be used in Catholic church services for the first time this year.

Comments

Unknown said…
Reb Walter Homolka, peace! We don't need you there, you can do your thing.

Shalom.
Lisa Marie said…
Apparently, it is possible to educate oneself into imbecility. The worst part is that such rantings are considered news worthy. Soooo....it's not politically correct even to talk to people if they happen to believe differently from you. Well, then I say let them have their way. You can't force people to agree with you or even talk with you, but you can love them anyway. Didn't their mothers teach them this?