Jews, Catholics meet in Galilee

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

To see related Q and A with Bishop Peter Baldacchino, click here.

MIAMI | Representatives of the Jewish community both in Miami and Israel affirmed the value of a unique interfaith encounter set recently in Israel and organized by members of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Set on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust, seven cardinals, 20 bishops and 120 rabbis from around the word met at a Neocatechumenal Way retreat center May 4-7.

Joined by representatives of the academic, artistic and cultural worlds of both faiths, their goal was to strengthen Catholic-Jewish ties.

They also discussed topics of common interest, such as: the saving mission of the Jewish people and of the Catholic Church in the world of today; the transmission of faith to the coming generations; the contrast between the Judeo-Christian anthropology and anthropologies based on the premise of the negation of God; the reemergence of anti-Semitism and xenophobic fundamentalism.

“It was an unprecedented initiative encouraged by the Holy See,” according to a press release issued by the Neocatechumenal Way. “Pope Francis sent a message to underline and recognize this event as an instrument to reinforce the fraternity between the two peoples.”

The setting was the Domus Galilaeae, a facility on the Sea of Galilee close to a site that Catholics hold sacred as the Mount of Beatitudes.

Miami was one of the few U.S. cities to have a bishop in attendance for this first experience of dialogue. Due to previous commitments, Archbishop Thomas Wenski asked Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino to represent the archdiocese at the event.

Joining the bishop were Father Emanuele de Nigris, pastor of St. Cecilia in Hialeah and rector of the Neocatechumenal Way’s Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Miami, and local Neocatechumenal Way members Stefano Benigni, Lucia Benigni, Jack Boynton and Kevin Sison.

Miami’s Rabbi Solomon Schiff and his wife Shirley, as well as Rabbi Yaakov Thompson of the Sunrise Jewish Center, were among the eight Florida representatives of the Jewish community on hand for the encounter.

Rabbi Schiff told The Florida Catholic that the event was the first Catholic-Jewish convocation of its kind that he could recall in some 60 years of service and interfaith collaboration in the Miami community.

He also said he was struck by the fact that a Catholic-run retreat center in Israel had set up a synagogue space for the Jewish members and had gone through the process of making the center kosher in order to accommodate Jewish dietary regulations during the summit.

During their time in Israel, the group also had an opportunity to celebrate a Jewish holiday, Lag BaOmer, during which they sang songs and enjoyed fellowship around a traditional Lag BaOmer campfire overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

“It was a very heart-warming experience and brought into visual sight all that we have been hearing about in terms of advances in Catholic-Jewish relations over the last 50 years and since Nostra Aetate (the document of the Second Vatican Council),” Rabbi Schiff said.

He added that the retreat facility was a “marvelous center,” built to strengthen the religious faith of Catholics but also as a place for Catholics and Jews to dialogue and learn from each other.

“There was a permanent synagogue with a Torah, and another Torah on display in the library there, and they had the 10 commandments in a huge pillar in a hallway, written in Hebrew and Latin,” Rabbi Schiff said.

He added that he and Bishop Baldacchino strengthened their friendship during their days together in Israel.

The highlight of the gathering was a symphony performance of an original work, “The Suffering of the Innocents,” written in remembrance of Holocaust victims and performed by an orchestra and chorus of the Neocatechumenal Way.

The orchestra had presented the same symphonic piece on several occasions: In 2012 in Boston, at the Lincoln Center in New York City for an audience of 3,000 Jews and dozens of rabbis, and at the Bechar Gerard Theatre in Jerusalem. In June 2013, the piece was performed in Auschwitz, at the entrance of the “Gate of Death,” for an audience of some 15,000 people.

Rabbi Schiff said he will suggest that the participants at the interfaith gathering consider a reunion for the full group in Miami at some future date, possibly with a performance by the same orchestra.

In Jerusalem, Rabbi David Rosen, who attended the convocation on behalf of the American Jewish Committee, where he serves as international director of Interreligious Affairs, told The Florida Catholic that the Neocatechumenal Way has been deepening its awareness and knowledge of Jewish life, especially following Pope St. John Paul II’s historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000.

The conference also was an opportunity to bring scores of rabbis from around the world into engagement with the Way and to further promote Catholic-Jewish dialogue and friendship, he said.

“It was remarkable not only because of the number of rabbis attending, but because of the spectrum of rabbis from ultra-Orthodox to Reform/Reconstructionist,” Rabbi Rosen said, noting that such a gathering would be less likely if it was an exclusively Jewish event.

“This event was an important tribute to how far Jewish-Catholic relations have come in these 50 years since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate and will serve to strengthen Jewish-Catholic relations around the world,” Rabbi Rosen said.

He noted that the Neocatechumenal Way’s center in the Galilee also serves as an educational visitor center for Jewish Israelis.

“Most of the rabbis (on hand) had been involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue before, but not most of the ultra-Orthodox who attended,” Rabbi Rosen said.