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1970 - Noordwijkerhout: Pastoral Recommendations
Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands
During the Plenary Session of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands from 5 to 8 April, 1970 at Noordwijkerhout, a series of "Pastoral Recommendations" were studied from a plan for "Relations between Jews and Christians". This final document was drawn up by the Sub-Commission "The Church and Israel" of which Mgr Dr A. Ramselaar is the president.
According to the method of this Pastoral Council only the "Pastoral Recommendations" were voted on and are now official conclusion. They are to be published with the basic schema.
Plan of report: (Relations between Jews and Christians
Introduction
Motives and plan
The Pastoral Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands considers it desirable to examine her attitude towards the Jewish people (1).
1. The Jews have made important contributions to the history of Dutch civilization, and the Netherlands have played a prominent role in Jewish life and thought during past centuries, so that our capital has been called the Jerusalem of the West.
2. The destruction of most of the Jewish communities in the Netherlands in the horrifying persecution during the years of occupation — 19401945 — still calls for reflection: on the one hand to uphold the living remembrance of the courage and faith-inspired power which were demonstrated by so many in privation and under torture; and, on the other hand, it must not be forgotten that many Christians failed in their duty as a consequence of centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, which has been used as a warning by the Provincial Council of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church (2).
3. The Jewish people have their special place in the Church's faith. They can never be simply equated with non-Christian peoples. The Church knows that she cannot be the Church for all Nations, without being connected to the living Jewish people of today. She believes that, through her Head, Jesus Christ, she remains united for ever to the Jewish people, not only historically, but also in its continued existence. The unbroken and particular link between the Jewish people and the Church must be a determining factor in the Church's own mission, and her attitude towards present-day Jewish people. This will help the Church to a better understanding of her mission in the world, and to the fostering of unity with other Churches.
Only a few problems have been treated here from among the many that exist in Jewish–Christian relations. The report tries to avoid looking upon relations with the Jewish people exclusively from biblical and theological data, and neglecting the development of Jewish life after the year A.D. 70 (and 130).
It is a speciality of the spirit of Judaism to learn from the day-to-day lessons of history. That is why the starting point of the relationship is the attitude towards the Jews throughout the centuries. And, in virtue of biblical, historical, and theological data, some principles have been formulated which should determine relations between Jews and Christians.
The close connection between Jews and Christians consists not only in the historical origin of Christianity in Judaism, but, above all, in spite of different outlooks, that they have many elements in common in the Church's daily life, and in Jewish worship, namely: the liturgy of the Word, the Lamb of God and the ministry of Reconciliation. For this reason a special paragraph has been devoted to this point.
Attention is also called to the improvement in social relations between Jews and Christians, in two paragraphs:
— Catechesis concerning the Jewish people
— Education and information regarding the
relation between Jews and Christians.
Chapter I
Anti-Semitism
Referring to the Declaration of Vatican II Nostra Aetate, the Pastoral Council condemns every form of anti-Semitism.
1. The Vatican Council states (Nostra Aetate, No. 5): "We cannot in truthfulness call upon that God who is the Father of all, if we refuse to act in a brotherly way towards certain created men, created as they are in God's image. A man's relationship to God the Father and his relationship with his brother men are so linked together that Scripture says: "He who does not love, does not know God' (1 Jn 4: 8).
This is a condemnation of any theory or practice which discriminates between one man and another, between one people and another, in their human dignity, and hence, in their human rights".
2. This is particularly true in any sincere reflection about relations with Jews and with the Jewish people. Anti-Semitism is not only a form of unjust discrimination with regard to a human group or people, but it is also resistance to a fundamental view of life. It is directed not only against the Jews as an ethnic or sociological group, but, above all, against their very existence as the result of their history and religious experience. In this context, anti-Semitism fundamentally means a misjudgement of the very nature of God's action with the Jewish people, the firstborn of all peoples. If this aspect of anti-Semitism is not recognized, we continue to risk making a wrong estimation of the qualities and behaviour of the Jewish people.
3. In the past, and even today, Christians and Churches have looked upon the history of God's People too much from their own, all too human, point of view. The Church has always been predominantly considered as the Church of the Gentiles, to the exclusion of the Jewish people, and a common spiritual heritage has been lost. This, among other things, has been the cause of the unspeakable injustices that have been committed against the Jews. The extent of such injustice was revealed in this present century, when the vast number of Christians and Churches hardly raised their voices against a massacre of the Jewish people which exceeds all imagining, — a massacre in which all men share responsibility.
4. Religious thinking about the very existence of the Jewish people as such, shows that there is a particular relationship between the Jewishpeople and the Promised Land. The Jews consider this relationship not only as a historical, cultural, or religious phenomenon, but as an indissoluble element in their expectation of the day when all nations will embrace in Peace and Justice. To neglect or to deny this fact may be the cause of misunderstanding, and help to nourish prejudice about the nature of the Jewish people and its place among the nations; a misunderstanding which has alread led, and may lead again to discrimination. The presence of anti-Semitism requires great cautiousness, and a sound knowledge of Jewish reality.
Chapter II
The relation of the Church to the Jewish people
The Declaration of the second Vatican Council indicates the spiritual connection of the people of the New Testament with those of Abraham's race (Nostra Aetate No. 4a). The Council points out the continuation of the Old Testament in the New, and how the Church was prefigured and took root in the Jewish people (No. 4b). In his letters to the Christians of Ephesus (4b) and Rome (4c), St. Paul recalled the connection which has always existed between the Church and the Jewish people; the great spiritual patrimony which they share (4e), and, finally, how the Church together with the prophets and the same apostle awaits the day, known to God alone, when all nations will unanimously invoke the Lord and "serve Him shoulder to shoulder" (Ze 3:9).
The Pastoral Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands believes that, according to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms (Lk 24:44; Lk 13:34-35), the Jewish people has been constituted for ever as a testimony of God's saving alliance with mankind (Is 43: 10; Rm 9: 11). God's promise par excellence to the Jewish people is the everlasting covenant (cf. Rm 9: 4-5; 11:29; Ep 2: 12). The Pastoral Council believes that Jesus Christ born under the Law (cf. Ga 4: 5), is the one whom the Prophets, the Righteous and Kings desired to see (Mt 13:17; Lk 10:24), because in Him the revelation of God's eternal love reached its plenitude (cf. Ep 1:10; Col 1:15-23). The Pastoral Council states that in Jesus Christ, peace has been initiated, uniting the two worlds, and breaking down the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles (cf. Ep 2:14-15). He shall come to complete this Peace (Jn 16:33; Rv 21). That is why also the as yet unfulfilled promises of God to the Jewish people are held in honour in liturgical prayer.
With gratitude the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands gratefully commemorates the true spiritual tradition in which the Jews have preserved the Law and the Prophets. She also recognizes the many spiritual and religious values existing among the Jewish people, which provide a permanent stimulus and the reason for an examination of the Church's conscience, being as they are, of great significance for justice and peace in the whole world.
Consequently, the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands is doing her utmost to promote the renewal of Jewish–Christian relations through mutual knowledge and esteem, as the Second Vatican Council proposed to the whole Church. Searching the Scriptures and history together, with equal readiness to learn from them, will be a great contribution to this cause. Any intention, or design, for proselytism must be rejected as contrary to human dignity and Christian conviction. Moreover, the position of the Jewish people with regard to the universal message of Christ cannot be equated with the position of those professing other non-Christian religions. Christianity nowadays is confronted by questions regarding therecognizability of God's ways in human history and in respect of religion itself in a secularized society. It may be appropriate to attempt to integrate Jewish tradition into this new thinking.
Chapter III
Relation with the Jewish people in liturgy
1. The link between the Jewish people and the Church comes to light especially, and is mysteriously experienced in public worship. In Word and Sacrament, in hymn and prayer, the community celebrates the living Presence of Christ, the Head of His Body in the Spirit. What God has operated in his people, Christ has consolidated and brought to its ultimate completion by his unique and eternal mediation. In the liturgy the Church experiences a new creation in Christ, and a participation in Abraham's offspring and Israel's dignity (baptism, liturgy in the Passover night). Christ is "the true Easter-Lamb that takes away the sins of the world" (Easter preface). Partaking of it we proclaim His death until He comes (cf. 1 Co 11:16).
In the essential elements of her liturgy the Church preserves the heritage of Jewish worship both in content and form; the proclamation Of the Word of God, the celebration of the Passover meal and the ministry of Reconciliation in Baptism and the sacrament of Penitence.
2. Only in the awareness of this bond, will true relations between Jews and Christians come about. Through living and realizing this link, the community of Christ will reach her true stature. This principle formed the original liturgy of the Church, its service of the Word and Eucharistic celebration, Advent and Christmas, Passover from Lent to Pentecost, and the entire Reconciliation ministry. Liturgical renewal always has to be alive to this idea, in order to maintain the sound proclamation of the ecumenical and eschatological character of the liturgy.
This draws attention to the following concrete points:
a) The use of the psalms in the liturgy, rather than hymn singing, not only because the Church has always considered the book of Psalms as her book of prayer, but in the psalms, the proclamation of Salvation is put into words in striking and many faceted ways.
b) The readings, especially those concerning the Jewish people and the Promised Land, should contribute to a correct understanding of the Christian link with the Jewish people.
c) Prayers, especially those of the Eucharistic celebration, have to express Christ's love of all men, and His love for His own people.
3. All traces of anti-Semitism should disappear. This applies to texts in some parts of the Missal and breviary, and particularly to any presentations of Christ's Passion, where Jesus, Mary, and the apostles feature as non-Jews, and the other Jews as caricatures. Care must be taken that old prejudices do not unintentionally creep in again.
4. Texts that may give rise to misunderstanding if read out of context, or without knowledge of historical circumstances or linguistic usage of the times, should be carefully placed in their right perspective in preaching, so that they may contribute to a new attitude towards the Jewish people.
Chapter IV
Catechesis and the Jewish people
Actual situation
1. Catechesis should provide an important contribution to the improvement of Jewish–Christian relations, and to fruitful interaction between Judaism and Christianity. In the past it was the way in which catechesis was presented that fostered prejudices against the Jewish people in succeeding generations. Even present-day catechesis frequently fails in this respect:
— mainly by unconscious misjudgement or disdain of the Jewish people, past or present;
— by lack of a positive approach to the Jewish people;
— by an insufficient concept of the real nature and extent of anti-Semitism.
General Rules
2. Conditions to build up a true catechesis about the Jewish people:
— a thorough knowledge and a right understanding of the Bible as the proclamation of God's action in mankind. A correct relation to the Jewish people can never come about as long as the Christian feels a stranger to the Bible. Belittling ideas about the Jewish people will inevitably live on as long as the preaching of Jesus and the apostles is detached from its historical Jewish background, and Christianity is presented as a system of abstract truths. The history of the Jewish people, before, as well as after Christ, has to be considered in its particular meaning in Salvation History.
— a sincere, faithful reflection on the relation of the Church to the Jewish people according to the rules expressed in Chapter III.
— respect of the full historical truth concerning the Jewish people and correct information about the living Jewish reality.
Special points
Some points demand particular attention:
1. The Jewish people has to be considered as the people with whom God concluded his covenant for ever. The Old Testament does not exist only in function of the New Testament, but has it own significance in Jewish as well as in world history.
3. The Jewish people is not collectively guilty of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, nor of the rejection of Jesus as Messiah. Though the Jewish 'authorities, with their adherents, clamoured for His death, as the Declaration on the attitude of the Church towards non-Christian Religions states (No. 4): "...what happened in His Passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today". The Jewish people is not damned, nor bereft of its election. Their sufferings, dispersion, and persecution are not punishments for the crucifixion or the rejection of Jesus. It is unjust to accuse the Jews of "deicide".
4. It is not self-evident at all that a complete rupture arose between Jews and Christians, since Jesus himself — born of a Jewish mother — never broke away from his attachment to his people. The young Church was rooted in the Jewish people.
5. Present religious life of the Jewish people has to be represented truthfully in catechesis.
6. It is incorrect and unjust to place the New Testament and the Old Testament in opposition, the New Testament as a covenant of love, and the Old Testament as a covenant 4 fear, sincethe preaching of God's love of man and of man's love of his fellow-men in charity, fidelity, and justice form an essential part of Old Testament teaching.
7. The evangelical message and the apostolic preaching about the significance of the Jewish people in the ultimate unification of the world (Mt 23:37-39; Lk 13:35; Ac 1:7; 19, 21; Rm 9: 11, and Ep 2: 11-22) should be brought into more distinctive relief.
Chapter V
Education and Information.
1. All who are responsible for instruction and education should be informed during their training about the permanent significance of the Jewish people in God's plan for mankind. The history of persecutions should not be concealed and the Jewish people must not be treated as though they were non-existent.
2. It is important to set up a concrete project for the promotion of those sciences which are connected with Judaism, preferably in collaboration with other Churches.
3. Study of the Jewish people is also recommended in the training of future priests.
4. This has to be done in the spirit in which the Jewish people understands its own existence.
5. An appeal is made to all mass media to promote the renewal of Jewish–Christian relations.
Pastoral recommendations
1. That the Catholic Church in the Netherlands be guided by the religious conscience expressed in the Declaration of Vatican Council II Nostra Aetate No. 4, in her relations with the Jews. This recalls that:
a) The Jews remain most dear to God because of the Fathers (Rm 9:4-5; and Rm 11:28);
b) The Church of Christ is grafted on to the branches of the Jewish people, (cf. Rm 11:17-24);
c) There is a spiritual patrimony common to Jews and Christians.
2. The Pastoral Council recognizes that the biblical message came to the Church in and from the Jewish world of thought and faith, therefore:
a) A thorough knowledge and correct understanding of the Bible as the proclamation of God's way of acting with mankind cannot be fully attained without familiarity with Jewish awareness of God and Jewish understanding of biblical terms;
b) It should be acknowledged that not only the Old Testament, but the New Testament also can be reckoned among Jewish writings, and that the New Testament cannot be understood without knowledge of the Jewish back-ground.
c) Study of the Scriptures by Jews and Christians in common is desirable.
d) It is necessary for the Church that fidelity to the original text of the Scriptures be safeguarded.
3. A common re-orientation on their Jewish origin is necessary for the progress of encounter between the different Churches.
4. The Pastoral Council rejects all forms of anti-Semitism and declares in particular:
a) That, in continuation of the Declaration of Vatican Council II, it not only deplores, but positively condemns all forms of anti-Semitism.
b) It wishes to repeat, that the Passion of Christ cannot be blamed on all the Jews then living, nor on Jews of today; therefore, they should not be considered as accursed or rejected.
c) That humanitarian grounds alone suffice for the condemnation of discrimination against Jews as a special group in world society and followers of a particular religion and concept of life.
d) That the Church has the duty to reflect on the entire history of the Jewish people before, as well as after Christ, and on its own self-understanding as well.
e) That reflection together by Jews and Chris- tians, with the help of modern Jewish and Christian thought, on their common origin, as well as on the causes of their separation, is necessary.
f) That it would be right—after the reference to the acta et decreta concilii provincialis ultrajectensis 1924, canon 1325, par. 3, p. 183, made in the draft report — to ask the Dutch Episcopate to nullify what was stated in that paragraph.
5. The Pastoral Council wishes to bear witness that the Catholic Church in the Netherlands jointly with other Christians and Jews.
a) wishes to live according to God's promise of justice and peace;
b) wishes to serve the welfare of the whole of creation;
c) wishes to seek the answers to questions about the idea of God, the image of man, the eschatological expectation, as they co
determine the general and religious crises of the West today.
6. The Pastoral Council emphatically requests those responsible to give constant and serious attention to the deeper penetration of these thoughts and the results of further study and reflection in theological formation, preaching, catechesis, liturgy and publications.
Notes(1) The expression "Jewish people" immediately raises the question of the exact significance of this term. We take our stand from the conviction expressed in the Old Testament and confirmed in the New Testament, that the Jewish people has an existence very specially its own. Its existence as a people (its origin and centuries of vicissitudes) similar to those of other peoples, however, display characteristics which place it as a people ordinary categories.
This is why it is impossible to define the expression "Jewish people". They themselves have never been able to find a solution acceptable to all and this report does not attempt to do so either.
The title "Jewish people" was preferred to "Jews" as this latter word suggests that the individual Jew isdifferent from other men, whereas it is solely their particular existence as a people with which this document is concerned. Moreover, the name "Jews" fails to recognize the solidarity of the Jewish peope dispersed, as they are, throughout the whole world. The name "Israel" is also avoided because of its divergent overtones, even more acute than those of the "Jewish people".
This document wishes only to be an expression of relations between Jews and Christians as such, inasmuch as they belong to the Jewish people or to the Christian community. As the Jewish people is not simply a religious group, its existence among other peoples always includes political implications. This report bears no judgement on such implications, even when they touch such interests as the internationalization of Jerusalem or the administration of the Holy Places.
(2) Acta et decreta concilii provincialis ultrajectensis 1924 can. 1325 par. 3 p. 183: (...).
"Relations with Jews must be avoided because this people is very estranged from the doctrine of the Cross pf Christ: a scandalous thing for them. Parish priests must take care that Christians do not work for Jews who would use them as servants or as subordinates. If there is no danger to faith or morals, paid daily work may be undertaken for Jews, either in agriculture or in factories.
However, a grave warning is given: such services must not lead to others which would endanger the soul, arising, above all, from a desire for lucre. Moreover, the faithful must take care — according to the warning of Benedict XIV (Enc. A quo primum, 1751) never to need the help, or the support of the Jews (...)."
