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1968 - Bogota: Conclusions and Recommendations
World Organization of a moral, social, philanthropic and educative order and the section for Ecumenism of CELAM
At the invitation of B'nai B'rith (World Organization of a moral, social, philanthropic and educative order), and the section for Ecumenism of CELAM (Bishop's Conference of Latin America), a meeting beetween Jews and Christians took place at Bogota on 20 and 21 August, 1968. Practically all the countries of Latin America were represented. Rabbis and laymen of the three main currents of Judaism (Conservative, Orthodox, and Reform), Christians, priests,, nuns, laity, and several bishops among whom was Cardinal Henriquez, of Santiago, Chile, all took part in the meeting.
At its close the following "Conclusions and Recommendations" were formulated and widely distributed among the public. As the work as one of collaboration between Catholics and Jews, the text is not, properly speaking, a Catholic one, but its importance is inescapable.
I. Service to the Community.
1. PERSONAL. The meeting recommends collaboration free of all prejudice through the medium of existing civic organizations.
2. FAMILY. It recommends contact and common action by Jewish and Christian families with a view to offering services of a family and social character.
3. RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY. It recommends:
a) Better realization of the need to work jointly.
b) That the largest or most representative Jewish and Christian organizations should make contact in each locality in order to
— form joint commissions or name delegates to link the different organizations in order to discover the communities' needs.
— Study these needs and examine possible solutions including those which would involve mobilizing civic organizations, welfare institutions, and individuals.
4. IN GENERAL, it recommends that all joint work should be as widespread as possible, so as to witness to the unity of the two religious confessions in furthering human needs.
II. Study and Cultural Exchanges.
THE MEETING RECOMMENDS:
1. Establishing and integrating groups of theological experts in Latin America to work privately and eventually to publish the results of their work. The following are among the themes that could be studied:
a) Israel — its significance in Jewish theology
b) Secularization
c) Atheism
d) Salvation in Christianity and in Judaism
2. Publishing articles of joint interest in existing or new publications.
3. That CELAM and the corresponding Jewish institutions should encourage the reciprocal establishment of study-courses and seminaries in the theological faculties of the Latin American continent, on specific themes. Where Jewish faculties do not exist, Jewish institutions should see about inviting Catholic experts to expound their religion.
4. Promoting lecture-tours throughout the continent by Catholic and Jewish experts expounding their own religion and culture.
5. Proposing to the biblical associations and scholars of the continent that they invite Jewish scholars to participate in their activities.
6. Study of the Bible by joint family and student groups.
7. Making available to both religions other sources – texts and commentaries — which may be mutually profitable.
8. Preparing a list for the whole continent of the names and addresses of people occupied in Judeo-Christian activities.
III. Getting rid of prejudice.
THE MEETING PROPOSES:
1. To concern itself with discovering surviving mutual prejudices in schools, seminaries, and families.
2. To revise text-books, catechisms, and prayer-books, as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias, with a view to eliminating every form of mutual prejudice.
3. To ask the department of ecumenism of CELAM:
a) to enlist the collaboration of its Faith department (ComisiOn de Catequesis) for work on points 1 and 2 above.
b) to inform each Latin American episcopal conference about the results of the present meeting.
c) to promote joint meetings for the study of specific problems in Judeo-Christian dialogue.
The meeting considers it worth while to point out the following existing activities and facilities:
— audiovisual:
a musical and visual presentation of the text of Vatican II's Declaration on non-Christian Religions films on the theme of fraternity (translations into Spanish of Brasilian originals)
— literary:
bibliographical information available from the Elias Center at San Jose de Costa Rica; the publication by a Catholic firm of Hugo Schlesinger's Dictionary of Jewish Thought, with an introduction by Bishop Jose de Castro Pinto, auxiliary of Rio de Janeiro.
Christian articles published in Baderej, the organ of the Jewish community in Central America.
IV. Sharing in Worship.
THE MEETING RECOMMENDS :
1. General points:
a) promoting knowledge of each other's liturgies among both communities.
b) defining the use of terms on the vocabulary of worship.
2. In particular:
Since Jewish worship is an affirmation of monotheism, a community affirmation, an expression of the believer's deepest aspirations and a thanksgiving to God for His gifts, the meeting considers that.
a) we can bring Jews and Christians together for prayers.
b) For this prayer we can use the TANACH (which Catholics call the Old Testament).
c) In choosing biblical or prayer texts we should be careful to avoid controversial passages.
d) These meetings for prayer should be prepared for jointly.
e) For the moment this idea should be carried out only on special occasions (e.g. prayers for peace or for unity, world-wide or national days of prayer, public thanksgivings etc.)
f) For these joint prayers it is better to use formulae not habitually in liturgical use.
(Quoted from Information Service N. 6, January, 1969/I, of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.)
