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Presentation
The Editors

The year 1985 was a most important one for Catholic-Jewish relations. There were celebrations, too numerous to count, of the twentieth anniversary of the promulgation by the Second Vatican Council of NOSTRA AETATE - the Declaration of the Church's Relations with Non-Christian Religions - whose fourth and most important paragraph is not only concerned with Judaism, but with the very self-definition of the Church itself:
"As this Sacred Synod searches into the mystery of the Church it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock."
This anniversary has been marked by an event of its own which calls for a new impetus in the ever-growing dialogue. On June 24 the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews took the as yet unprecedented step of addressing, not the Universal Church as was done through Nostra Aetate and the Guidelines ;,nd Suggestions for its implementation nine years later, but the very people whose vocation in the Church is to teach the faithful - Preachers and Catechists.
June 24, then, was a red letter day in this short twenty-year history, because in Rome the text which is the subject of our Review was released during the course of a press interview given by the then Mgr. Jorge Mejìa * as Secretary for the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. The exact title of this text should not be lost from view: NOTES on the Correct Way to Present iews and Judaism in Catechesis and Preaching of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the operative words in the description of the text is NOTES, and it is no co-incidence that June 24 was chosen for their official release. Being the feast of John the Baptist, the precursor of Jesus, this date is meant to indicate that the NOTES are, as it were, a precursor - that is to say, one who points the way to the preacher and catechist on his or her journey. As is stressed by Bishop Mejìa in the press release, the NOTES are
"intended to provide a helpful frame of reference for those who are called upon to speak about Jews and Judaism . . . in keeping with the current teaching of the Church..."
This, then, denotes the aim of this edition of the SIDIC Review: taking the NOTES as our point of reference, we wish to put into the hands of preachers and catechists a handbook that we trust may be of service as a guide, another precursor, so to say, in this teaching of the Church. To appreciate the importance of our task, we could do no better that to ask the NOTES to speak for themselves:
"Because of the unique relations that exist between Christianity and Judaism - 'linked together at the very level of their identity...' the Jews and Judaism should not occupy an occasional and marginal place in catechis: their presence there is essential and should be organically integrated." (Emphasis added)
To aid preachers and catechists in this essential task, our handbook is presented in two main parts:
a) the text itself, together with its official presentation and explanation and followed by some important theological considerations;
b) aids for preachers and catechists in putting the Church's teaching into practice.
We have commented already on the fact that this document is addressed to the Church's special aducators in pulpit and classroom. There is a certain sense, however, in which the NOTES should be regarded - like the two preceding official documents - as applying to each single Catholic. In proportion as we try to live the Gospel message in its fulness, we are by that very fact witnesses to Christ. We may never mount a pulpit or catechize in our parishes, yet our way of life should be a proclamation of our faith, a witness to our belief in Jesus, born of the Jewish people for the salvation of humanity, a belief which calls us to deepen our appreciation of the Jewish tradition from which his Gospel has sprung. Such witness is in itself a dialogue - an understanding of and an appreciation for our Jewish brothers and sisters, heirs and heiresses of "the gifts and the call of God" which our New Testament teaches us "are irrevocable" (cf. Rom 11:29).
When the NOTES were first issued, reactions were ambivalent. Initial responses, Jewish and Christian, were both positive and negative. It seems to us that the positive value of the NOTES is self-evident. In what concerns the negative aspects, these too have been of great value. By the very fact that strong negative reactions were expressed, the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews saw the necessity of some clarifications and elaborations of its text. This need has borne fruit, because not only do we have an official text, but also official presentations which, among other things, explain what was not clear, either by way of too short a sentence here, or a seeming contradiction there.
The NOTES, then, are accompanied by Bishop Mejìa's Press Release in the name of the Commission. This is followed by the text of Dr. Fisher (presented in a three-patt series) who, as a Consultor to the Commission, was one of the official spokespersons for the NOTES at the meeting of the International Liaison Committee which took place in Rome last October. What we have, therefore, is not only an official text but its official interpretation. Following these texts, we present also extracts from the excellent theological commentary written by Michel Remaud. This too has its importance because it is part of the presentation issued by him in the name of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism of the diocese of Paris.
The Review is completed by practical pages for preachers and catechists, thus providing an opportunity for them to share the experiences of other homilists and catechists in what concerns the NOTES and their commentaries, and of applying some of their main points in their own apostolate.
It has been our aim, then, in editing this issue, to help ensure that catechetical instruction and the preaching of God's Word may be in harmony with the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.