THE JEWISH-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE, AN EXPERIENCE
(…)What struck us in Benedict XVI's speech at the nunciature (in Paris) was his denunciation of anti-Semitism, not only as it being a wicked thought in view of the duties among human beings but because "to be an anti-Semite is to be an anti-Christian," following the powerful phrase coined in 1942 by (Father) Henri Sonier de Lubac, who later became Cardinal. (…)
This date leads us to the Shoah, a word that was not uttered by the Pope. He evoked "those who unfairly died" and "those who toiled so that the names of the victims are remembered."
But can we be contented with this wording? Those – the Jews and the others – did not simply die unfairly, they were killed. And the Jewish people was to a large extent exterminated.
The Pope came to France, a country where the Jewish-Catholic dialogue is of an exceptional quality for already several years.
Fraternity without syncretism, respect without admixture, cooperation without standardization, the Jewish-Christian dialogue is a beautiful human experience and may be a superhuman experience that doesn't limit itself to a theological confrontation; it has from the onset been a hope for a world from which fanaticism would have been extirpated. This dialogue remains too fragile to be regarded as a triviality. It is up to us, all together, to keep it alive. I hope that the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Paris will signal its consolidation.
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