French CCJ awards Sisters of Sion

19/10/2012: France

Two Sisters of Sion, Sr. Louise-Marie Niesz and Sr. Dominique de la Maisonneuve, received this evening the annual award of the French ICCJ member organization, the Amitié Judéo-Chrétienne de France. The ceremony was held in the beautiful “Collège des Bernardins” in Paris.

Among the speakers this evening was Revd Florence Taubmann, the President of the AJ-CF, who excellently moderated this for our French friends and colleagues most important event of the year. And it was the auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop of Paris who welcomed the crowded Grand Auditorium of the Collège. Those who gathered this evening in the building dating back to 1150, also heard a moving speech by Father Patrick Desbois, a well known friend in ICCJ.

Representatives of the Jewish community, among them the Board of the Conseil Répresentative des Institutions juives de France, highly commended Sr Louise-Marie and Sr Dominique in particular for all the work they did for SIDIC, the Service Information Documentation Juifs et Chrétiens. And of course, in these days now we commemorate the beginning of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago, the contribution of the Congregation of the Sisters of Sion to the process that resulted in the Vatican document Nostra Aetate, was mentioned several times.

The end of this heartwarming event was the speech by Sr. Louise-Marie and by Sr.  Dominique.  They both reminded us of the work still ahead of us, of the rise of antisemitism in some countries and also of our common belief to work for a just cause. The International Council of Christians and Jews wholeheartedly joins the many congratulations to Sr. Louise-Marie and Sr. Dominique and all Sisters of Sion world wide  without whom Jewish-Christian relations would not have been what they are now: a true “amitié”.