Scottish Catholic Observer

The head of the World Jewish Council Ronal S Lauder (above) said that ‘never in the past 2000 years have relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people been so good.’

Last week, Pope Francis praised the Jewish people for having ‘kept their faith in God’ despite the Holocaust and centuries of persecution. In an unprecedented open letter to a newspaper, which appeared earlier this week in the Italian daily La Repubblica, Pope Francis replied to the prominent Italian atheist Eugenio Scalfari, who wrote a series of editorials addressed to the Catholic Pope over issues of religion.

The Holy Father responded to a question posed by Mr  Scalfari about whether the Jewish people had been  forgotten by God.

“Believe me, this is a question that radically involves us as Christians because, with the help of God, starting from the Second Vatican Council, we have discovered that the Jewish people are still, for us, the holy root from which Jesus originated,” the Pope replied.

Pope Francis went on to say that he has also questioned this in conversations he has had with Jewish friends in his native Argentina and as well through prayer that he has ‘asked God, especially when I remember the terrible experience of the Shoah.’

“What I can say, with the Apostle Paul, is that God has never stopped believing in the alliance made with Israel and that, through the terrible trials of these past centuries, the Jews have kept their faith in God,” he said. “And for this, we will never be grateful enough to them, as the Church, but also as humanity at large.”

The Holy Father added that by Jews ‘persevering in their faith in God,’ they ‘remind everyone, even us as Christians that we are always awaiting, the return of the Lord and that therefore we must remain open to Him and never take refuge in what we have already achieved.’

Since becoming leader of the world’s Catholics in March, Pope Francis has made Jewish-Christian relations a priority, continuing the legacy of his predecessors. Last week, in a meeting with World Jewish Congress (WJC) leaders at the Vatican, he wished Jews around the world a sweet and peaceful New Year.

Dr Riccardo Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, responded very warmly to the Pope’s remarks noting, ‘this Pontiff does not cease to surprise.’

Dr Di Segni noted that while Francis’s words are not new but, rather, inherent to Christianity and confirmed by Vatican II, ‘it is the force with which he expresses them and his capacity of communicating them that is astounding. The fact that Judaism is the holy root of Christianity is fundamental, but many theological currents, especially in Protestantism, have tried to belittle them. In opposing these currents, Francis is coherent to the teaching of Benedict. Especially noteworthy is his expression of gratitude to Jews for their devotion in faith.’

Speaking of the ‘special dignity’ of the Jewish People, ‘which we assume grows in proportion to our fidelity to the Torah,’ the chief rabbi specified that ‘in these strange times, in these very days, an authoritative external voice has reminded us of this—a voice paradoxically coming from a camp that has for centuries inflicted on us suffering, humiliation and offence precisely because we kept true to our tradition in the Messianic expectation.’