Pope Involved in "Process of Building Deeper Religious Relations Between Catholics and Jews"

EDITOR'S NOTE: Good shepherds protect their flock from wolves. Bad ones neglect to do so. What can be said of a shepherd who builds deep relations between his flock and wolves? What would the Church Fathers have to say of such treachery? One needn't guess. Read their writings. They said and did precisely the opposite of what Benedict XVI says and does in this regard.

Have the rabbis and their tradition become any less hostile to Christians and Christianity since the time of the early Church? Absolutely not. So how do we account for this theological and epistemological about face? What Church document can be cited in it's support other than the rabbinic edict, Nostra Aetate?

What happened to the healthy, well founded suspicion Christians had in previous generations of the rabbis and their followers that they were an enemy in their midst? Who benefits from the abandonment of that suspicion?

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE CHIEF RABBIS OF ISRAEL

Friday, 15 September 2005

Distinguished Gentlemen,

With an open heart I welcome you here today, and express my appreciation of the fact that your visit intends to emphasize the positive results that have come from the Second Vatican Council's declaration Nostra Aetate, the fortieth anniversary of which we are commemorating this year. I see your visit as a further step forward in the process of building deeper religious relations between Catholics and Jews, a course which has received new impulse and energy from Nostra Aetate and from the many forms of contact, dialogue and co-operation that have their origin in the principles and spirit of that document. The Church continues to make every effort to implement the Council's vision of a new era of better mutual understanding, respect and solidarity between us.

Full Address