The Vatican rejects Israeli criticism of the pope’s comments on Jewish law

VATICAN CITY, Sept. 10 (Reuters) – The Vatican has rejected criticism from top Israeli rabbis over Pope Francis’ statements about Jewish books of sacred law, saying it does not question their continued validity for Jews today.

Last month, Reuters reported that Rabbi Rasson Arousi, who is in charge of the Israeli chief’s rabbinic relations with the Vatican, had written a stern letter to the Vatican in which he said Francis’ comments at a general hearing August 11 seemed to suggest that the Torah, or Jewish law, was obsolete. Read more

The Vatican’s official response, seen by Reuters on Friday, said the pope’s comments in a homily on St. Paul’s writings should not be extrapolated from their context of antiquity and had nothing to do with current Jews. .

“The permanent Christian conviction is that Jesus Christ is the new way of salvation. However, this does not mean that the Torah is diminished or no longer recognized as the ‘way of salvation for the Jews,'” Cardinal Kurt Koch wrote. whose Vatican department covers religious relations with Jews.

“In his catechesis, the Holy Father makes no mention of modern Judaism; the direction is a reflection on (St. Paul’s) theology within the historical context of a given epoch,” Koch wrote.

“The fact that the Torah is crucial to modern Judaism is not questioned in any way,” he said.

The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, contains hundreds of commandments that Jews must follow in their daily lives. The measure of adherence to the wide range of guidelines differs between Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews.

In his letter to Koch in August, Arousi said the pope’s comments risked the return of the “teaching of contempt” that prevailed in the Catholic Church until the last century.

“Given the positive statements that Pope Francis constantly made about Judaism, it can in no way be presumed to return to the so-called ‘doctrine of contempt,'” Koch wrote.

“Pope Francis fully respects the foundations of Judaism and always seeks to deepen the bonds of friendship between the two religious traditions,” he said.

Relations between Catholics and Jews were revolutionized in 1965, when the Second Vatican Council rejected the concept of collective Jewish guilt over the death of Jesus and began decades of interreligious dialogue. Francis and his two predecessors visited synagogues.

Francis has had a good relationship with the Jews. While he was archbishop in his native Buenos Aires, he wrote a book with one of the city’s rabbis, Abraham Skorka, and has maintained a lasting friendship with him.

Report by Philip Pullella; Edited by Angus MacSwan

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