Column Cassidys open ears a sign of hope for dialogue
By TIM UNSWORTH
The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin,
archbishop of Chicago, spent the final months of his life attempting to create
a common ground on theological issues that divide so many of us. He wasnt
looking for some compromised agreement. He simply sought to clear away
misunderstanding so that believers could arrive at genuine disagreement.
Cited in Martin Martys newsletter, Context, Frederica
Mathewes-Green, an Orthodox Christian, marvels: You cannot imagine how
healing this is. To have someone that you thought hated you, and someone that
youre pretty sure misunderstood you, actually understand you.
It was that way a few weeks ago during an intensive three-day
consultation, jointly sponsored by the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Center for
Theology and Ministry at the renowned Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and
the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in New York City. The
consultation brought together over 40 Jewish and Catholic scholars and
religious leaders. Their task was to explore the 1998 Vatican document We
Remember: Reflections on the Shoah [Holocaust].
With the exception of one lecture, the conference was closed to
the press and the public. It was just as well. The dialogue got pretty dense.
But when the scholars emerged and partook of preprandials and dinner, they
talked openly about the already much-discussed year-old document that had been
both welcomed and criticized.
The consultation was held while NATO was bombing Yugoslavia and
Milosevics troops were cleansing Kosovo. There is a temptation to view
this conflict as a mini-Holocaust, but it is an inept comparison. The
Holocaust has no analog, Time essayist Roger Rosenblatt wrote in
the April 12 issue. That is why almost 60 years after the fact, it is
still impossible to fit it into the rest of history.
Rosenblatt stated that the Holocaust cannot be compensated for.
Injustice prevails. ... Injustice wins. ... There are no moral
equivalents, he wrote. [It] not only lies beyond compensation; it
also lies beyond explanation, reconciliation, sentiment, forgiveness,
redemption or any of the mechanisms by which people attempt to set things
right. ... Here is a wrong that can never be set right, and people are left
groping for something to take the place of the irreplaceable.
The Catholic-Jewish dialogue may be filled with faults because it
is filled with logistical problems. For example, worldwide, there are over 1
billion Catholics compared with less than 15 million Jews. In the religiously
polyglot United States alone, Catholics outnumber Jews by over 17 to one. And
both groups bring heavy ethnic and cultural baggage that can severely hobble
their religious differences.
The document attempted to draw a distinction between the
anti-Semitism of the Nazis and the anti-Judaism so
prevalent in general society. Critics claimed that such distinction amounted to
slicing the ham a bit too thin.
Jewish leaders did not cheer the document, which had been nearly
11 years in preparation. They stated that members of the Catholic hierarchy in
Germany, France and Poland have issued statements that go much further in
accepting responsibility for the failures of the church in the Nazi era than
the Shoah document does.
The miracle of this small conference was that, before the three
days were out, one Jewish participant said that there were times when she
couldnt be certain whether the person contributing to the discussion was
Jewish or Catholic.
The evenings main speaker was Cardinal Edward Cassidy,
president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. He is
one of only two Australian cardinals -- Two is plenty, he observed.
(The other is the archbishop of Sydney.)
The 74-year-old Vatican prelate has had a brilliant career that
began in 1949 in the diocese of Wagga Wagga, which means City of the Crow. By
1952, he was in Rome for doctoral studies at the Lateran. He never returned to
Australia. He joined the diplomatic corps and was posted to India, Ireland, El
Salvador, Argentina, China, Bangladesh, Burma, Africa and the Netherlands.
When youre in a country for a few months, you feel
that you could write a book about the place, he said. After a year,
you think you might be able to write an article. After a few years, you realize
that you could never understand the place.
It may be that way with the differences that separate Jews and
Catholics.
In 1988, Cassidy was named sostituto or deputy secretary of
state, making him the third highest ranking prelate in the church, a post he
held for just a year before being appointed to his present position. The
sostituto post is traditionally held by an Italian. The position
generally controls much of what the pope sees. Clerical gossip claims that
Cassidys genial but blunt-spoken manner and his penchant for telling it
like it is was unacceptable in the Vaticans world of subtlety and
indirection.
He troubled the pope with reality, one priest
commented -- something no Italian would dream of doing.
Cassidy will reach 75 in July but he could be kept on. During the
wine and cheese portion of the conference, participants and guests were already
speculating that the job could go to Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore or
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, two cardinals with some ecumenical
experience.
In 1989, Cassidy was named to his present position, replacing
Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, now nearing 90. In 1991 he got the red
hat. You would have to be a troglodyte not to like him.
Cassidy believes that Catholic-Jewish relations today are the best
they have ever been. But he admitted that a great deal more needs to be done.
It is not possible in a period of 35 years, he said, to
change deeply rooted anti-Jewish attitudes in each and every member of a church
of 1 billion people spread throughout the world.
Of late, John Paul II has been preparing for the millennium by
expressing deep sorrow for the failures of the churchs sons and daughters
in every age. Some observers have claimed that the pope was blaming all of the
churchs children while protecting the institutional church. Cassidy was
quick to point out that all meant just that -- everyone from the
pope on down.
But it gets sticky. Jews can readily find evidence of
long-standing mistrust and hostility among people in positions of authority and
even renowned teachers of the faith. They can accept such behavior as what the
Shoah document refers to as anti-Judaism. But they ask just how
much this attitude also contributed to anti-Semitism. Cassidy
acknowledged a relationship between these two evils but not one of cause and
effect. He found no intrinsic link between the anti-Judaism of the Christian
church and the anti-Semitism of modern, neo-pagan National Socialism, the
belief system of the Nazis.
We Remember also defends Pope Pius XII and his efforts
on behalf of the Jews during World War II. An extended footnote cites the
praise given to Pius XII by Jewish leaders after the war.
The churchs compulsive need to defend its past popes can tie
it in knots. Cassidy tried, citing incidents during World War II in which small
groups of Jews were protected. None of this would have been possible
without the active support of Pope Pius XII, he said.
Nonetheless, he left the door open for further study of Pius
record, an issue that simply wont go away. Indeed, he stated that there
is need for a much greater effort in the work of formation, so that a new
spirit could replace the former spirit of suspicion, resentment and
distrust.
Cassidy called on Jews and Catholics to be for something. He
suggested, for example, that they call for a halt to the expenditure of
billions of dollars in armaments and weapons of mass destruction while millions
lack the basic necessities of human existence. He asked Jews and Catholics to
move beyond the anti-anti distinctions and to work together for a
better society. He called for a sincere dialogue marked by genuine respect for
one another. We cannot and should not forget the past, he said,
but we must not remain chained to the past.
Cassidy displayed a willingness to listen and, during a
post-lecture news conference, acknowledged that the listening had paid
dividends. He was not bothered by the criticism that followed the We
Remember document. If it causes some reflection, thats
good, he said. It could cause us to go beyond mutual
respect.
We have reached a milestone in our relationship, he
continued. Now, it is time to consolidate this into a real
partnership.
It will take much more time -- many, many years. Even now, a
Vatican congregation -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzingers Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith -- is investigating theologians who work in
interreligious dialogue, while other Vatican congregations attempt to promote
it. For example, the congregation is investigating Fr. Jacques Dupuis, a
leading expert on Catholic dialogue with Eastern religions. Dupuis is
supportive of religious pluralism.
Enormous progress has been made. But as Rabbi Irving Greenberg,
president of the Jewish Life Network, said to the conference, After
Auschwitz, there can be no solutions, even theological ones.
Tim Unsworth writes from Chicago. You can reach him at
unsworth@megsinet.net
National Catholic Reporter, May 14,
1999
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