CRIF, together with the National Episcopal Commission for Relations with Judaism and the European Jewish Congress organised a conference to mark the tenth anniversary of the declaration of repentance. The conference brought together several key players and specialists on the issue of Jewish-Catholic rapprochement. A special tribute was paid to Cardinal Archbishop Jean-Marie Aron Lustiger, who had passed away a few months earlier.
At a press conference organised by CRIF, the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris and Chair of the Episcopal Commission, André Vingt-Trois, France’s Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim and President of CRIF Richard Prasquier examined the present state and future outlook of relations between Jews and Catholics.
Richard Prasquier recalled the major role played by CRIF in Jewish-Catholic dialogue since the founding of the Jewish-Christian Friendship Association. “Jewish-Catholic dialogue, which is a real model in France, must now be passed on to the new generations,” said Richard Prasquier.
Monsignor André Vingt-Trois, for his part, said that he was pleased with the role played by Jewish-Christian Friendship chapters across France, saying that this dialogue is no longer reserved for the religious elite in Rome or Paris, but now covers the whole of France.
In a very diverse French landscape, the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris expressed his hope that the relationship of respect that has been built up between Jews and Catholics would now inspire the relations with Muslims. He also made an appeal for brotherhood established on mutual knowledge, and which does not yield to what he called “confusionism”. Thus, “when people speak of the ‘religions of the Book’, it is important for interfaith dialogue to know which book is being referred to”.
The Chief Rabbi added that interfaith dialogue is built “not on a search for agreement among the various answers, but on renewing the questioning of one religious tradition by the tradition of another.”
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