Pope Francis met with international Jewish leaders on Tuesday as they launched an initiative to strengthen Catholic-Jewish bonds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis visit testifies to and strengthens the bonds of friendship uniting us,\u201d the pope told members of the World Jewish Congress at the Vatican Nov. 22.<\/p>\n
Francis spoke with the executive committee of the international federation of Jewish communities and organizations during its twice annual meeting, which took place in Rome and the Vatican Nov. 21\u201322.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis meeting with a delegation of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) at the Vatican, Nov. 22, 2022. Vatican Media<\/p>\n
The World Jewish Congress announced Tuesday that it is starting an initiative called \u201cKishreinu\u201d (Hebrew for \u201cOur Bond\u201d), \u201cintended to strengthen Jewish-Catholic ties around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kishreinu initiative, according to the World Jewish Congress, \u201cwill serve as the Jewish community\u2019s response to the Nostra Aetate Declaration of the Second Vatican Council.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nostra aetate, the council\u2019s declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions, was a watershed in the history of Christian-Jewish relations.<\/p>\n
The document said the Church \u201crejects nothing that is true and holy\u201d in other religious traditions and encouraged \u201cdialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his remarks to the World Jewish Congress executive committee, Pope Francis noted that \u201cfrom the time of the Second Vatican Council, your Congress has been in dialogue with the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and for many years has sponsored meetings of great interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, Jews and Catholics, share priceless spiritual treasures,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Kishreinu initiative was launched during a Nov. 22 meeting in the Vatican\u2019s Synod Hall prior to the audience with Pope Francis.<\/p>\n
World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder said he was grateful to the Catholic Church during a time of increasing anti-semitic acts and rhetoric around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t ignore it. We don\u2019t forget. But we look forward, together. And what could possibly be better for all the children of God to live together in peace, harmony, and in the house of the Lord, forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose of us here today,\u201d he said, \u201care eager to promote our bond with the Catholic Church. Today, we launch the process of \u2018Kishreinu,\u2019 [which] reinforces the common future of our two people. It presents a new stage in the Catholic-Jewish bond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said \u201cwith our shared heritage, we have a common responsibility to work together for the good of humankind, refuting antisemitism and anti-Catholic and anti-Christian attitudes, as well as all kinds of discrimination, to work for justice, solidarity, and peace, to spread compassion and mercy in an often cold and merciless world.\u201d<\/p>\n
World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder meets with Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Nov. 22, 2022, at the Vatican. Credit: World Jewish Congress<\/p>\n
Pope Francis said: \u201cIn light of the religious heritage that we share, let us regard the present as a challenge that unites us, as an incentive to act together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur two communities of faith are entrusted with the task of working to make the world more fraternal, combating forms of inequality and promoting greater justice, so that peace will not remain an otherworldly promise but become a present reality in our world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The pope emphasized the importance of justice for building peaceful coexistence in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many human beings,\u201d he said, \u201ccreated in the image and likeness of God, are violated in their dignity as the result of the injustice that racks our world and represents the underlying cause of so many conflicts, the swamp that breeds wars and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe One who created all things with order and harmony urges us to cleanse this swamp of injustice that engulfs fraternal coexistence in the world, even as environmental devastations compromise the health of the earth,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He also pointed out faith\u2019s role in teaching us that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God and said the Scriptures remind us of the importance of inviting God into our actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, our political, cultural, and social initiatives to better the world \u2014 what you call Tikkun Olam \u2014 will never prove successful without prayer and without fraternal openness to other creatures in the name of the one Creator, who loves life and blesses those who are peacemakers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Denne artikel blev oprindeligt udgivet af EWTN News English.<\/p>\n